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i I 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ChapA^B Copyright No.. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 










W'^ 




L* 



4 ^ ■*■" 



THE NATIONAL MEDALS 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES 



AND 



ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES. 



/ 



BY 



V 

RICHARD M. McSHERRY, A. M., LL. B., LL. D., 

OF THE BALTIMORE BAR AND A COUNSELLOR OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE U. S. 

HEREDITARY MEMBER AND TREASURER-GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF THE 

CINCINNATI ; KNIGHT OF THE ROYAL ORDER OF THE CROWN OF 

ITALY ; KNIGHT OF THE ROYAL AND DISTINGUISHED 

ORDER OF CHARLES III. OF SPAIN ; MEMBER 

OF THE MARYLAND HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY ; &C., &C. 



BALTIMORE : 

JOHN MURPHY & CO., 

1897. 



^ 




two ConK» hCGElVED , 






Copyright, 1897, by Richard M. McSherry. 



f£5 



PREFACE. 



A preface is an apology ; something like the special pleas in 
justification, or confession and avoidance. 

The paper on " The National Medals of the United States " 
was published and distributed by the Maryland Historical Society 
in 1887. The edition was soon exhausted, but correspondents 
still continue to ask where a copy can be obtained. 

Many requests have also been made for the lecture on the 
Ober Aramergau Passion Play, which has been frequently 
delivered for various charities, but never printed. The " Talks 
on Taxation," in the opinion of some partial friends, were worth 
preserving in a form, more substantial than a pamphlet. 

In deciding to publish these papers, and add some addresses 
and essays on subjects of special interest to the writer, this little 
book has been evolved. 

These are the special pleas in justification, " as to the speaking 
and publishing of the said words, as in the counts above mentioned. 
And of this he, the said defendant, puts himself upon the 
country, &c." 

Richard M. McSherry. 

courtmacsherry, 

Baltimore County, Maryland, 

October 15th, 1897. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

1. THE NATIONAL MEDALS OF THE UNITED STATES; 

A paper read before the Maryland Historical Society, 14th of 
March, 1887 5 

2. THE LAYMAN IN LAW; An address delivered before the 

Catholic Association of Baltimore City, 11th of November, 
1890 49 

3. TALKS ON TAXATION IN MARYLAND; A pamphlet 

published on the 28th of November, 1893 81 

I. The True Basis of Taxation 82- 

II. An Honest Tax Law = 99-r 

HI. The Fieteenth Article of the Bill of Eights... 110- 

IV. Home Rule in Taxation 117— 

4. THE PASSION PLAY AT OBER AMMERGAU; A lecture 

delivered at the Academy of Music, Baltimore, on the 16th of 
December, 1890, for the benefit of the Society of St. Vincent 
de Paul... 127 

5. ADDRESS ; Delivered at the presentation to the City of Balti- 

more of the Monument to Christopher Columbus, in Druid 

Hill Park, 12th of October, 1892 167 

6. ADDRESS; At the Banquet of the Catholic Club, in honor of 

the Silver Jubilee of His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, 19th 

of October, 1893 175 

7. ADDRESS; As President of the Catholic Association, at the 

reception given to the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Francis 
SatoUi and Bishop P. J. Donahue, at the Academy of Music, 
Baltimore, 15th of April, 1894 185 

8. ADDRESS; Delivered at the Triennial Meeting of the Society 

of the Cincinnati, in Boston, 14th of June, 1893 193 

9. ADDRESS ; Delivered before the United Catholic Literary Soci- 

eties, at Bay Ridge, 30th of June, 1894 205 

10. SOME FAMILY PORTRAITS, and some Maryland Biography, 215 



THE NATIONAL MEDALS 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES. 



A Papek Read Befoke the Maryland His- 
TOEiCAL Society, 14th of March, 1887. 



SO far as authentic history goes, the great deeds 
of men have been commemorated in some 
conspicuous form, not only as a just recom- 
pense for well accomplished duty, but as an incen- 
tive to future generations to emulate the public 
virtue of the hero. 

As the Prince Ozias said to Judith, " He has 
so magnified thy name this day that thy praise 
shall not depart out of the mouth of men." 

And beyond authentic history, in that semi- 
twilight now being pierced by the keen eye of 
science, Egyptian papyri, immemorial stones 
carved with Assyrian and Persian cuneiform, 
2 5 



6 

with Scandinavian and Teutonic Runes, or with 
Aztec hieroglyphs, all give us in picture or in 
prose the story of the public triumph. 

But the natural fitness of things requires that 
public reward for public services, should be 
expressed not only in a conspicuous, but also in 
an enduring form, and so all the resources of art 
and labor and treasure have in each succeeding 
age been utilized and exhausted, to produce 
gorgeous edifices, temples and monuments, to 
signalize the victories of the great captains, and 
the reigns of the great kings and princes of the 
earth. 

Many of these great monuments of the past 
do survive, such as the Pyramids, and the later 
edifices of Greece and Rome, and to an extent 
we know their meaning and the name of the 
person in whose honor they were built. But 
who shall tell us of the number that have fallen 
into ruin and disappeared, as the men whose 
names they were built to perpetuate have dis- 
appeared and been forgotten. 

And of those that exist, which one tells us 
that which any coin dug from the old soil of 
the Troad will tell us ; the name, the date, the 
very features of the man in whose honor it was 
struck . 

The two largest and most imposing monuments 
on the Appian way, near Rome, are circular edi- 



fices, one of which is so large that there is a house 
and farm buildings and an olive grove upon its 
summit, and no man knows in whose honor it 
was built. The other, which is somewhat smaller, 
tradition calls the tomb of Cecilia Metella, but 
tradition cannot tell us who was Cecilia, nor why 
this sumptuous pile was erected to her memory, 
and the tomb itself is silent. 

But medals, as memorials, are not silent. In 
a year, or a hundred years, or a thousand years, 
after the man has played his part, this little 
metal disk is a witness who shall tell him who 
reads, the name of the man, and the deed he 
did, and the time and the country, and show his 
very features "in his habit as he lived." 

Much as we are indebted to ancient coins for 
exact and concise historical information,^ it would 
appear that what we call a medal was practically 
unknown to antiquity, which only struck pieces 

^"History of a Coin. — A coin is in itself a history. There was once 
a lost city which owes its place to a coin. For over a thousand years no 
one knew where Pandosia was. History told us that at Pandosia King 
Pyrrhus collected those forces with which he overran Italy, and that he 
established a mint there ; but no one could put their finger on Pandosia. 
Eight years ago a coin came under the sharp eyes of a numismatist. There 
was the word Pandosia inscribed on it; but, what was better, there was 
an emblem indicative of a well known river, the Crathia. Then every- 
thing was revealed with the same certainty as if the piece of money had 
been an atlas, and Pandosia, the mythical city, was at once given its proper 
position in Bruttium. Now, a coin may be valuable for artistic merit, but 
when it elucidates a doubtful point in history or geography, its worth is 
very much enhanced. This silver coin, which did not weigh more than 
a shilling, because it cleared up the mystery of Pandosia, was worth to the 
British Museum £200, the price they paid for it." — Baltimore American, 
March 29, 1887. 



8 

destined for circulation and exchange as money. 
The ancient engravers in the types of current 
money infinitely varied, endeavored to multiply 
and disseminate religious and historical ideas, but 
these were technically coins, not medals. 

The exact definition of a medal according to the 
science of numismatics is, "A piece of metal in 
the form of a coin not issued or circulated as 
money, but stamped with a figure or device to 
preserve the portrait of some eminent person, or 
the memory of some illustrious action or event." 

It may be fairly said that we owe the medal, 
according to this definition, to that period to 
which all arts are so much indebted. I mean 
the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century, 
which broke the old mould that imprisoned art 
in conventional forms, and brought her back to 
her mother nature. 

Yittorio Pisano or Pisanello was indeed the 
creator of the medal proper. He was a portrait 
painter of Yerona, and the first technical medal 
was designed by him in honor of John Paleologos, 
next to the last Greek emperor of Constantinople. 
This potentate, who wears in the medal a very 
remarkable headdress copied from life, was at 
the time, 1439, attending the great Oecumenical 
Council held at Ferrara and Florence, consulting 
about the union of the Greek and Latin churches, 
and had this medal struck in honor of his visit. 



9 



So accomplished an artist was Pisano, that a 
very late work on numismatics says that, " He 
marked the limits of the art to which he gave 
birth, and his successors have made variations on 
his style but not improvements." 

From his time onward, Italy has been distin- 
guished in this beautiful art — the long list of its 
masters, either as designers, engravers or both, 
including such great names as Raffaele and 
Benevenuto Cellini. 

France followed quickly in the footsteps of 
Italy, and a ver}^ beautiful medal was struck in 
1451 to commemorate the taking of Bordeaux, 
and the final expulsion of the English from 
France. Other nations followed in the wake and 
adopted the idea, so that every civilized country 
soon had issued national medals of more or less 
importance and artistic merit. 

'' When in the course of human events, it 
became necessary for this people to assume 
among the powers of the world, the separate 
and equal station to which the laws of Nature 
and of JSTature's God entitled them," the Conti- 
nental Congress was met at the outset with the 
question as to how the new republic should 
honor its heroes. It could not give them titles 
and peerages, but it could give them, as General 
Scott once expressed it, " the highest reward a 
free man can receive — the recorded ajpprohation of 



10 



his country r IN'ay, even before the tremendous 
declaration of the 4th July, 1776, the Congress 
had decided the point, for on the 26th March, 
1776, it was 

" Resolved, that the thanks of this Congress in their own name 
and in the name of the thirteen united colonies whom they repre- 
sent, be presented to His Excellency General Washington, and 
the officers and soldiers under his command, for their wise and 
spirited conduct in the siege and acquisition of Boston ; and that 
a medal of gold be struck in commemoration of this great event, 
and presented to His Excellency, and that a committee of three 
be appointed to prepare a letter of thanks and a proper device 
for the medal." 

Messrs. Jno. Adams, Jno. Jay and Hopkins 
were the committee so appointed, and here, over 
three months before the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, begins the story of 

The ]S"ational Medals of the United States. 

The letter of John Hancock, President of Con- 
gress, to Greneral Washington, informing him of 
this resolution, may well be taken as the best 
expression of the meaning and extent of the honor 
conferred on an American citizen by an act of 
Congress presenting him with a medal. 

" Philadelphia, ^d April, 1776. 
"To General Washington. 

"Sir: It gives me the most sensible pleasure to convey to you 
by order of Congress the only tribute which a free people will 
ever consent to pay — the tribute of thanks and gratitude to their 



11 



friends and benefactors. The disinterested and patriotic prin- 
ciples which led you to the field have also led you to glory ; and 
it affords no little consolation to your countrymen to reflect that 
as a peculiar greatness of mind induced you to decline any com- 
pensation for serving them except the pleasure of promoting 
their happiness, they may without your permission bestow upon 
you the largest share of their affection and esteem. 

"Those pages in the annals of America will record your title 
to a conspicuous place in the temple of fame, which shall inform 
posterity that under your direction an undisciplined baud of 
husbandmen, in the course of a few months became soldiers ; and 
that the desolation meditated against the country by a brave 
army of veterans, commanded by the most experienced generals, 
but employed by bad men in the worst of causes, was, by the 
fortitude of your troops and the address of their officers next to 
the kind interposition of Providence, confined for near a year 
within such narrow limits as scarcely to admit more room than 
was necessary for the encampments and fortifications they lately 
abandoned. Accept, therefore, Sir, the thanks of the United 
colonies unanimously declared by their delegates to be due to 
you and the brave officers and troops under your command, and 
be pleased to communicate to them this distinguished mark of 
the approbation of their country. The Congress have ordered 
a golden medal adapted to the occasion to be struck and when 
finished to be presented to you. 

" I have the honor to be with every sentiment of esteem, Sir, 
your most obedient and very humble servant, 

" John Hancock, 

"Preddeiit" 

No country in the world has been so chary of 
granting this sort of public recognition to its 
citizens as the United States. From the beginning 
of our national history to this, the 112th year of 
the republic, only eighty-three medals have been 
granted by Congress, so that, of all governmental 



12 



honors known to the world to-day, it is the 
rarest. 

It is interesting to recall the various opinions 
and suggestions made by the great men of that 
time in treating of this subject. 

The United States Mint was not established 
until 1792, and previous to that time the revo- 
lutionary medals were struck in France, generally 
under the direction of the American minister near 
that court. And it happened that there was in 
Paris at that time a brilliant group of engravers, 
who have given us in all of these medals noble 
specimens of their beautiful art. 

It appears that the first medal actually struck 
was that of Lieutenant-Colonel de Fleury, which 
was executed under the direction of Dr. Franklin 
about 1780. 

The doctor shows his practical mind in a sug- 
gestion which he makes in a letter to Mr. Jay, 
the then Secretary of State, he says : 

" The man who is honored only by a single medal is obliged to 
show it to enjoy the honor, which can be done only to a few and 
often awkwardly. I, therefore, wish the medals of Congress were 
ordered to be money, and so continued as to be convenient money 
by being in value, aliquot parts of a dollar." 

Our government has never quite adopted that 
idea (which was exactly the practice of the coiners 
of antiquity), but it has come tolerably near it, 
by placing upon every revenue and postage stamp 



13 



and bank note the portrait of some of our public 
men. 

In 1792 the Senate passed a bill for coining 
money with the head of the President upon it, 
but General Washington himself opposed it, and 
the House of Representatives amended the bill 
by substituting the head of Liberty^ the mother 
or perhaps grandmother of the classic female who 
now figures on that coin, which is by law worth 
100 cents, and of which w^e all try to be collectors. 

Colonel Humphreys, who w^as entrusted by 
Mr. Morris with the commission of procuring 
the other medals which had been voted, immedi- 
ately upon his arrival in Paris addressed himself 
to the French Royal Academy of Inscriptions and 
Belles Lettres, asking them to aid him "in having 
these medals executed in a manner grateful to the 
illustrious personages for whom they are designed, 
worthy the dignity of the sovereign power by whom 
they are presented, and calculated to perpetuate 
the remembrance of those great events which they 
are intended to consecrate to immortality." 

The Academy took a most active interest in the 
work, and immediately appointed a committee of 
four of its members to suggest the designs. 

Colonel Humphreys returned to America, leav- 
ing the superintendence of the medals to Mr. 
Jefferson, who in writing about them to Mr. John 
Jay, the then Secretary of State, made some sug- 
3 



14 



gestions which are thus commented on by Mr. Jay 
in his report to Congress, dated 11th July, 1787. 
After reciting Mr. Jefferson's suggestion, he says : 

"In the judgment of your Secretary it would be proper to 
instruct Mr. Jefferson to present in the name of the United 
States one silver medal of each denomination to every monarch 
(except the King of England for that would not be delicate); and 
to every sovereign and independent State without exception in 
Europe, and also to the Emperor of Morocco. That he also be 
instructed to send fifteen silver medals of each set to Congress, 
to be by them presented to the thirteen United States respec- 
tively, and also to the Emperor of China with an explanation 
and a letter, and one to General Washington. That he also be 
instructed to present a copper medal of each denomination to 
each of the most distinguished Universities (except the British) in 
Europe, and also to Cte de Rochambeau, Cte d'Estaing and Cte 
de Grasse, and lastly that he be instructed to send to Congress 
two hundred copper ones of each set together with the dies. 

" Your Secretary thinks that of these it would be proper to 
present one to each of the American colleges, one to the Marquis 
de la Fayette, and one to each of the other Major-Gen erals who 
served in the late American army, and that the residue with the 
dies be deposited in the Secretary's office of the United States 
subject to such future order as Congress may think proper to 
make respecting them. 

" It might be more magnificent to give gold medals to sover- 
eigns, silver ones to distinguish persons and copper ones to the 
colleges, but in his opinion the nature of the American govern- 
ment as well as the state of their finance will apologize for their 
declining this expense. All of which is submitted to the wisdom 
of Congress. 

"Jno. Jay." 

Congress does not seem to have adopted Mr. 
Jay's report, at any rate the proposed action has 
never been taken. But it would appear that Mr, 



15 



Jefferson fully expected that his suggestion would 
be carried out, as we find him under date of 23rd 
February, 1789, writing to Mr. Dupre, the en- 
graver, asking him for a copy of Dr. Franklin's 
medal, as he is going to have a description of all 
the medals, printed in order to send them with 
copies of the medals to the sovereigns of Europe. 

It is no doubt owing to the fact that the pro- 
posed copies of the medals were never struck, that 
the Bibliography of American ]National Medals 
did not begin with Mr. Jefferson's description of 
those given for the Revolutionary battles. 

The first work on this especial subject known 
to the writer of this paper, was published in 
1848, by Gary & Hart, Philadelphia, and is 
called " Memoirs of the Generals, Commodores 
and other Commanders who were presented with 
medals by Congress, by Thomas Wyatt." 

The writer's attention was called to this work 
by Mr. W. Elliot Woodward of Roxbury, Mass., 
a name well known to all American numismatists. 
The only accessible copy was found in the Boston 
public librar}^ and up to its date it is a complete 
work, giving an engraving of the medals issued 
up to that time with a memoir of each of the 
recipients. 

Mr. Wyatt seems to have been the first person 
to collect a full set of our medals, and in a letter 
from him to Mr. Woodward in 1861, he speaks 



16 



of the great difficulties he had in searching out 
and borrowing every medal of the series. For 
the medals of Major Lee and Major Stewart he 
was obliged to go to France. He had a number 
of sets struck off for sale at the request, and 
partly at the expense, of Jared Sparks, Abbott 
Lawrence, Daniel Webster and other gentlemen 
interested in the project, and he says that the 
Legislatures of Maine, ]\ew Hampshire, New 
York, Virginia and Pennsylvania ordered each a 
set for the public libraries, with a vote of thanks 
for his perseverance. 

In 1861 Mr. James Ross Snowden, Director of 
the Mint, published a volume called the " Medallic 
Memorials of Washington." Philadelphia, J. B. 
Lippincott & Co. — an interesting and valuable 
work. 

In 1878 Mr. J. F. Loubat, of JVew York, 
published his " Medallic History of the United 
States of America." This magnificent and ex- 
haustive work has become an absolute authority 
on the subject. All that learning, and consci- 
entious and intelligent research can do, has been 
done to make it perfect, and the writer of this 
paper cheerfully acknowledges his indebtedness to 
it for most of the facts herein given. The work 
being, however, only published as an " edition de 
luxe," in two large quarto volumes, printed on 
especially prepared paper and enriched with 170 



17 

etchings of the medals by M. Jules Jacquemart, 
it is necessarily too expensive a book for general 
circulation and is, therefore, perhaps not as well 
known as it ought to be. 

Mr. Loubat gives descriptions of eighty-six 
medals which he classifies as national, although 
seven of them have not the sanction of a Con- 
gressional vote. 

The first, or Revolutionary group, is composed 
of the following : 

1. General Washington, for the occupation of 
Boston, by Duvivier. 

2. Major- General Gates, for the surrender at 
Saratoga, by Gatteaux. 

3. General Wayne, for Stony Point, by Gatteaux. 

4. Major John Stewart, commanding the left 
wing storming party same action, by Gatteaux. 

5. Lieutenant-Colonel de Fleury, commanding 
the right wing storming party same action, by 
Duvivier. 

6. Major Henry Lee, for surprise of Paulus 
Hook, by J. Wright. 

This was the famous " Light Horse Harry " — 
the worthy sire of his noble son. General R. E. 
Lee. 

7. John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac 
Van Wart, for the capture of Major Andre. 

This is not a medal proper, but a piece of 
repousse work made by a silversmith. 



18 



8. General Morgan, for the victory of the 
Cowpens, by Dupre. 

9. Lieutenant-Colonel William A. Washington, 
same action, by Duvivier. 

10. Lieutenant Colonel John Eager Howard, 
same action, by Duvivier. 

11. Major-General Nathaniel Greene, for the 
victory at Eutaw Springs, by Dupre. 

This completes the list of medals given to the 
army during the Revolution. Two of the recipi- 
ents were Mary landers. The first, Major John 
Stewart, was a son of Stephen Stewart, a merchant 
of Baltimore.^ He commanded the left storming 
party at Stony Point, which, in the words of 
General Wayne's official report, " with unloaded 
muskets and strict orders not to fire, in the face 
of a most incessant and tremendous fire of 
musketry and from cannon loaded with grapeshot, 
forced their way, at the point of the bayonet, 
through every obstacle." 

In this same report Mr. Archer is commended 
for gallantry, and was in consequence brevetted 
captain by order of Congress, which looks as 

^ This Stephen Stewart was my great-great-great-grandfather. His grand- 
daughter Annie Stewart Wilson (born Stewart) was my great-grandmother. 
She spent the last years of her life in my father's house on Howard Street, 
Baltimore, and died there when I was about fifteen years old. "Uncle 
Jack" as she always called Col. Stewart was the family hero, and although 
I believe he died when she was almost a baby, she often told us about his 
sayings and doings. He had the reputation of being gidlant as well as 
ga(\ant. I have his Stony Point Medal in my library. — H. M. McS. 



19 



though Harford County had a representative in 
that action. 

Colonel Stewart was a first lieutenant in 1776, 
captain in 1777, served through the war with 
great distinction, and commanded a regiment in 
the Southern Campaign. He went to South 
Carolina directly after the war and died there in 
1783, and so was comparatively little known in 
Maryland outside of his own kinsmen. Of the 
other Marylander — Colonel John Eager Howard — 
nothing need be said here ; his life is a part of 
the history of this city and known to us all. 

The Maryland bayonet was as effective under 
Colonel Howard in South Carolina, as it had been 
under Colonel Stewart on the Hudson, as will 
appear from these words taken from General 
Morgan's official report of the action at the 
Cowpens : " Lieutenant Colonel Howard observing 
this, gave orders for the line to charge bayonets, 
which was done with such address that they fled 
with the utmost precipitation, leaving their field 
pieces in our possession. We pushed our advan- 
tage so effectually that they never had an oppor- 
tunity of rallying, had their intentions been ever 
so good." 

It is a matter of history that the Gallant 
Colonel, during the battle of the Cowpens, held 
in his hands at one time the swords of seven 
British officers who had surrendered to him. 



20 



But one medal was given during the Revolution 
to the young American navy — that of 

12. Captain John Paul Jones for his various 
naval exploits, particularly the capture of the 
British frigate Serapis off the coast of Scotland. 

This great naval commander hoisted with his 
own hands the first American naval flag on board 
the Alfred on October 10, 1776, at Chestnut Street 
Wharf, Philadelphia. He was the only American 
of&cer decorated by the King of France, and has 
the unique distinction of being the only American 
citizen whose title of knight (chevalier), conveyed 
by the decoration, has been ofiicially recognized 
by the United States Congress. 

This medal is by Dupre, and, with the exception 
of the medal of Major Henry Lee, which is by 
Joseph Wright, the first draughtsman and die 
sinker of the United States Mint, and of the 
medal to the captors of Major Andre, all of those 
mentioned were executed by the great French 
engravers, mostly after designs and with inscrip- 
tions furnished by a committee of the Academy 
of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres in Paris. 

Our forefathers evidently did not believe in 
protection to home art, perhaps being of the 
same mind as a great American general, who, 
in writing to the Secretary of War on this 
subject, said : " But I beg leave again to sug- 
gest that the honor of the country requires that 



21 



medals voted by Congress should always exhibit 
the arts involved in their highest state of per- 
fection ivlierever found ; for letters, science and 
the fine arts constitute but one republic embracing 
the world J ^ General Washington seems to have 
been also imbued with that idea, for w^hile at 
Yalley Forge, on finding some valuable medical 
manuscripts — the property of a British medical 
officer — among some other captured property, he 
directed them to be returned to their owner, 
saying that the Americans did not war against 
the sciences. 

There are six other well known medals of the 
Revolutionary times, which are of very great 
historical importance, but are not national in the 
sense of being ordered by Congress. These are 

13. The Libertas Americana, in honor of the 
surrender at Yorktown. This was ordered by Dr. 
Franklin, to be executed by Dupre. It represents 
young America as the infant Hercules strangling 
two serpents. 

14 and 15. Two medals to Dr. Benjamin 
Franklin, engraved and dedicated to him by his 
friend, Augustin Dupre, both of which bear Tur- 
got's celebrated Latin verse, composed in his 
honor: ^^Eripuit coelo fuhnen sceptrumque tyrannise 
(He wrenched the thunderbolt from heaven and the 
sceptre from tyrants) . 

16 and 17. Two medals struck in Amsterdam 
4 



22 



— one called " Libera Soror " in honor of the 
acknowledgment of the United States by the 
United JN^etherlands, the other in honor of the 
celebration of the first treaty of amity and com- 
merce between those countries. 

18. The so-called Diplomatic medal. It was 
then the custom, and, to a great extent is now, 
for a sovereign to give some token of his regard 
to a retiring ambassador who has been a " persona 
grata" at his Court, and General Washington, and 
his Secretary of State — Mr. Jeiferson — evidently 
thought that the United States Government should 
not allow itself to be outdone in generosity and 
splendor, by any king of them all, and so ordered 
these medals, each with a gold chain, to cost 
$1,000; but only two have ever been given — one to 
the Chevalier de la Luzerne, Minister of the King 
of France in the United States from 1779 to 1784, 
and the other to the Marquis de Moustier, likewise 
French Minister at Washington from 1787 to 1790. 

A medal called the Japanese Embassy Medal, 
was struck at the Philadelphia Mint on May 17, 
1860, by order of the State Department, in honor 
of the arrival of the first diplomatic representa- 
tives of the Empire of Japan in this country. 
Three gold medals were struck, one for each of 
the three envoys, and copies in silver or copper 
were given to the other members of the Embassy ; 
but this must not be confounded with the Diplo- 



23 



matic medal, and, strictly speaking, is not a 
national medal. It was simply to commemorate 
the interesting fact, that for the first time in 
history, the Empire of Japan abandoned its tra- 
ditional policy of Oriental seclusion, and opened 
regular diplomatic communication with Western 
civilization. Many gentlemen here present will 
doubtless recall the visit of these ambassadors to 
Baltimore on the 8th June, 1860, where, as guests 
of the Government of the United States, they were 
formally received by the Mayor and City Council, 
and their swords were stolen from the Gilmor 
House. A peculiar and much-criticized incident 
in that connection, was that the police authorities 
advertised, offering a large reward — I believe 
$1,000 — for the recovery of these swords, promis- 
ing to the thieves immunity from all criminal 
prosecution on the return of the stolen property. 
This was done on the belief that the loss of the 
swords would subject the envoys to the penalty 
of death- on their return to Japan. 

19. The first medal given by Congress after 
the Revolution was to Captain Thomas Truxton, 
commander of the United States frigate Constella- 
tion, which was built at Harris Creek, Baltimore, 
for the capture of the French ship of war La 
Vengeance, near the island of Guadaloupe, on the 
1st February, 1800. This was at the time of the 
unfortunate complication with France, which has 



24 



left us, among other disagreeable reminiscences, 
the famous French spoliation claims. 

President John Adams, in writing to Captain 
Truxton in regard to this medal, expressed some 
views about the navy which do not seem to have 
been in accord with the policy of our Government 
for the last twenty years. He says : " The counsels 
which Themistocles gave to Athens, Pompey to 
Rome, Cromwell to England, De Witt to Holland 
and Colbert to France, I have always given, and 
shall continue to give, to my countrymen — that 
as the great questions of commerce and power 
between nations and empires must be decided by 
a military marine, and war and peace are decided 
at sea, all reasonable encouragement should be 
given to the navy. The trident of JN'eptune is 
the sceptre of the world." 

20. The next medal was granted March 3, 1805, 
to Commodore Edward Preble, of the navy, for the 
gallant action before Tripoli in 1804. We find in 
the official report high commendation given to a 
lieutenant with the Maryland name of Trippe, who 
commanded one of the boats and was severely 
wounded in that action. 

21-42. Some reference should now be made 
to the medals which are called by the United 
States Mint Presidential Medals. Of these there 
are twenty-two — two for General Washington and 
one for each of the succeeding Presidents except 



25 



General William Henry Harrison who died one 
month after his inauguration. 

In 1786 Mr. Kean, member of Congress from 
South Carolina, moved that medals be struck for 
presentation to the Indian chiefs with whom the 
United States should conclude treaties. 

The first medal so struck was given to Red 
Jacket, the great chief of the Six JN'ations, on 
his visit to Philadelphia in 1792. It bore on its 
face the figure of General Washington, with the 
legend, George Washington, President, 1792, and 
all subsequent Indian medals have, following this 
precedent, borne the engraved portrait of the 
President who approved of the treaty, with the 
date of his administration, thus making a most 
valuable and interesting addition to our national 
historical medals. 

More medals were granted during the war of 
1812 than at any other period of our history. 

The first three were voted January 29, 1813 : 

43. To Captain Isaac Hull, of the United States 
frigate Constitution, for the capture of the British 
frigate Guerriere. 

44. To Captain Stephen Decatur, of the frigate 
United States, for the capture of the British frigate 
Macedonian, and 

45. To Captain Jacob Jones, of the United States 
sloop of war W^asp, for the capture of the British 
sloop of war Frolic. 



26 

Silver medals, copies of the golden ones voted 
to these captains, were directed by Congress to be 
given to the nearest male relatives of Lieutenants 
Bush and Funk, killed in these actions. 

The gallant Captain Decatur was born in Syne- 
puxent, Worcester County, Maryland, and Captain 
Hull, in his report, highly recommends Lieutenant 
Contee, of the Marines, for coolness and gallantry. 

Xext come the medals of 

46. Captain Bainbridge, for the capture of the 
Java, December 29, 1812. 

47. Lieutenant McCall, for the capture of the 
Boxer, September 4, 1813, and 

48- Lieutenant William Burrows, for the same 
action. He was in command of the United States 
brig of war Enterprise, was killed in the action 
and was succeeded in command by Lieutenant 
McCall. His medal was, therefore, voted by Con- 
gress to his nearest male relative. 

49. The famous victory of Captain Oliver Hazard 
Perry on Lake Erie added two medals — one to 
Perry himself, and the other to the second in 
command 

50. Captain Jesse Duncan Elliott, of Maryland, 
who was thirty-one years old at the date of that 
action, but, young as he was, had already made 
his mark by cutting out two British ships from 
under Fort Erie, for which Congress had voted 
him a sword of honor. Commodore Perry's old 



27 

battle flag, with the legend " Don't give up the 
ship," is still preserved at the Naval School at 
Annapolis. 

The victory of Lake Champlain was rewarded 
by three medals — one to 

51. Captain Thomas McDonogh, one to 

52. Captain Robert Henley, and one to 

53. Lieutenant Stephen Cassin. 
Then followed the medals of 

54. Captain Lewis Warrington, of the sloop of 
war Peacock, for the capture of the British brig 
Epervier, April 29, 1814, and of 

55. Captain Johnson Blakely, of the sloop of 
war Peacock, for the capture of the British sloop 
of war Reindeer, July 8, 1814. 

56. The medals of Captain Charles Stewart, of 
the United States frigate Constitution, for the 
capture of the British frigate Cyane, and of 

57. Captain James Biddle, of the United States 
sloop of war Hornet, for the capture of the British 
sloop of war Penguin, complete the list of naval 
medals granted during the war of 1812. 

Captain Charles Stewart was the maternal 
grandfather of the present famous Irish patriot, 
Charles Stewart Parnell. 

During the same war the actions of Chippewa, 
Niagara and Erie, in Upper Canada, were rewarded 
by medals to 

58. Major-General Jacob Brown. 



28 



59. Major- General Peter Buel Porter. 

60. Brigadier- General Eleazar Wheelock Ripley. 

61. Brigadier- General James Miller. 

62. Major-General Winfield Scott. 

63. Major-General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, 
and the victory of Plattsburgh, by the medal of 

64. Major- General Alexander Macomb. 

In the official reports of these battles special 
mention is made of Captain Towson's artillery. I 
suppose that he is the same gallant officer whose 
fame has been immortalized by the naming of the 
capital of a neighboring county. 

The next of the army medals of the war was 
granted for the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 
1815, to 

65. Major-General Andrew Jackson, " Old 
Hickory " — " a great democratic victory." 

And Congress in 1818 voted medals to 

66. Major-General William Henry Harrison, 
and 

67. Isaac Shelby, a Governor of Kentucky, for 
the battle of the Thames, in Upper Canada, Octo- 
ber 5, 1813. 

General Harrison was, as has been already 
stated, the only President of the United States 
for whom no Presidential medal was struck. 

Governor Shelby was born in Hagerstown, 
Maryland, September 14, 1750. He distinguished 
himself in the Southern battles in the Revolution- 



29 



ary war, and was voted a sword of honor with 
the thanks of the Legislature of North Carolina. 
He was Governor of Kentucky from 1812 to 1816, 
and joined General Harrison at the head of 4,000 
Kentucky volunteers and rendered gallant service 
at the battle of the Thames. He declined to be 
Secretary of War in 1817 and died in Kentucky, 
July 18, 1826. 

The last medal for this war was not voted until 
February 13, 1835. It was to 

68. Colonel George Croghan, for the defense of 
Fort Stephenson, August 3, 1813. 

Congress does not seem to have found it neces- 
sary, to commemorate the battle of Bladensburgh, 
by the granting of a medal to any of the partici- 
pants in that brilliant strategic movement. 

69. From the end of the war of 1812-15 to 
the time of the Mexican war, no medals were 
voted by Congress, as the war with the Florida 
Indians did not apparently call for any such 
especial hionor ; but during this period a medal 
was struck in France in honor of the treaty of 
commerce concluded with that country, June 24, 
1822. This is in no sense an official medal, but 
Mr. Loubat classifies it as national by reason of 
its great historic interest. 

70. 71, 72. During the Mexican war Major- 
General Zachary Taylor received no less than 
three medals, with the corresponding vote of 

5 



30 



thanks of the Congress — one July ]6, 1846, for 
the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma ; 
one March 2, 1847, for Monterey; one May 9, 
1848, for Buena Vista, and 

73. General Scott, the hero of 1812, received 
his second medal for the actions of Vera Cruz, 
Cerro Grordo, Contreras, Churabusco, Molino del 
Rey, and Chapul tepee. 

All through the reports of these actions we find 
honorable mention of the Maryland names of Wat- 
son, Ringgold, May, Ramsey, Randolph Ridgely, 
and others of the gallant sons of this old State. 

On the 10th December, 1846, the United States 
brig Somers, one of the squadron blockading Vera 
Cruz under the command of Captain Raphael 
Semmes, was struck by a sudden squall, and sunk 
wdthin ten minutes from the time the squall struck 
her. The British, French and Spanish men-of-war, 
who witnessed the disaster, immediately lowered 
boats manned by brave men, who, at the peril of 
their own lives, in a raging sea, rescued all but 
two officers and forty men. 

74. Congress passed an act, March 3, 1847^ 
directing that a suitable medal be struck, and 
presented to the officers and men of these various 
foreign vessels, in recognition of their gallant and 
humane conduct. 

75. The Martin Costa incident in the harbor of 
Smyrna, eluly 3, 1853, resulted in the voting of a 



31 



medal to Commander Duncan N. Ingraham, of the 
United States ship St. Louis. This gallant officer, 
evidently a firm believer in " a vigorous foreign 
policy," was informed that Martin Costa, a citizen 
of the United States, had been claimed as an 
Austrian subject, was taken as a prisoner and 
confined on board the Austrian brig Hussar. 
After polite request for his surrender and a refusal 
from the Austrians, Capt. Ingraham shotted his 
guns, anchored within half a cable's length of 
the brig, which had been by this time reinforced 
by a ten-gun schooner and three Austrian mail 
steamers, and sent the following note : 

** To the Commander of the Austrian brig Sussar : 

Sir, — I have been directed by the American charge at Con- 
stantinople to demand the person of Martin Costa, a citizen of the 
United States taken by force from Turkish soil and now confined 
on board the brig Hussar, and if a refusal is given, to take him 
by force. 

An answer to the demand must be returned by 4 p. m. 

" Very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" D. N. Ingraham, Commander." 

Costa was then surrendered and sent on shore to 
the custody of the French Consul. 

76. A medal was voted on May 11, 1858, to 
Surgeon Frederick Henry Rose, of the British 
navy, for volunteering to act as medical officer of 
the United States ship Susquehanna, nearly all of 



32 

whose crew were disabled and dying from yellow 
fever, and on July 26, 1866, a medal was voted to 

77. Captains Creighton, Low and Stouffer, for 
saving the ship's company of the wrecked steamer 
San Francisco, with the Third United States Artil- 
lery on board, in December, 1853. 

78. With a magnanimity and true patriotic feel- 
ing which does honor to the American character, 
the Congress gave no medal commemorating the 
battles of the great civil war except the one given 
to Major- General U. S. Grant by the act of Decem- 
ber, 1863, for the victories of Fort Donelson, 
Yicksburg and Chattanooga 

79. On the 28th January, 1864, a medal was 
also voted to "Commodore" Cornelius Yanderbilt, 
in recognition of his free gift to the Government 
of the steamer which bore his name, and which 
was valued at $1,000,000. It was provided in the 
act that a copy of this medal should be placed in 
the Congressional Library. In his letter accepting 
the medal, he gives the following good advice to 
his descendants : " And it is my hope that those 
who come after me, as they read the inscription of 
the medal and are reminded of the event in their 
father's life which caused it to be struck, will 
inflexibly resolve that, should our government be 
again imperilled, no pecuniary sacrifice is too large 
to make in its behalf, and no inducement suffi- 
ciently great to attempt to profit by its necessities." 



33 

80. On the 1st March, 1871, Congress voted to 
George Foster Robinson, late a private of Maine 
Volunteers, $5,000 in money and a gold medal in 
recognition of his heroic conduct in saving the 
life of Mr. Seward from the attack of Payne, the 
accomplice of John Wilkes Booth, on April 14, 
1865 ; but it seems unfortunate that this gentle- 
man could not have been suitably rewarded in 
some other way, than by a perpetual record of an 
act, which Americans of all political creeds can 
now only remember with shame and sorrow. 

These three medals are the only ones in any 
wise connected with that unfortunate war period. 

81. On March 2, 1867, Congress voted a medal 
to Mr. Cyrus West Field, of New York, "for his 
foresight, courage and determination, in establish- 
ing telegraphic communication by means of the 
Atlantic cable traversing mid- ocean and connecting 
the Old World with the New." 

Mr. Field founded the New York, Newfound- 
land and London Telegraph Company in 1854, 
organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 
1856, and was the active mover in that great pro- 
ject until its final real success in 1867. " Peace 
has its victories as well as war," and this was 
assuredly one of the greatest. 

82. On the 16th March, 1867, a medal was 
voted to George Peabody, " for his great and 
peculiar beneficence in giving a large sum of 



34 



money, amounting to |2,000,000, for promotion 
of education in the more destitute portions of the 
Southern and Southwestern States." 

Before a Baltimore audience it would be super- 
fluous to make any eulogy upon the character and 
good deeds of that great philanthropist. 

It may be of interest, however, to give an ex- 
tract from his letter to Mr. W. H. Seward, Sec- 
retary of State, acknowledging the receipt of the 
medal. 

" Cherishing, as I do, the warmest affection for my country, it 
is not possible for me to feel more grateful than I do for this 
precious memorial of its regard, coming, as it does, from thirty 
millions of American citizens through their representatives in 
Congress, with the full accord and co-operation of the President. 

" The medal, together with the rich illuminated transcript of 
the Congressional resolution, I shall shortly deposit at the Pea- 
body Institution, at the place of my birth, in apartments specially 
constructed for their safe keeping, along with other public testi- 
monials with which I have been honored. There, I trust, it will 
remain for generations, to attest the generous munificence of the 
American people in recognizing the efforts, however inadequate, 
of one of the humblest of their fellow-countrymen to promote the 
enlightenment and prosperity of his native land." 

This feeling acknowledgment by this great and 
good man of the honor conferred upon him, be- 
comes all the more striking when we recall the 
fact that he respectfully declined a baronetcy and 
the Grrand Cross of the Order of the Bath, tendered 
him by Queen Victoria in recognition of his muni- 
ficent charity to the London poor. 



35 

83. The loss of the steamer Metis, 31st August, 
1872, was commemorated by a medal granted to 
the crews of a life-boat and fishing-boat, who saved 
the lives of thirty-two persons from the wreck. 

84. John Horn, Jr., of Detroit, by vote of June 
20, 1874, received a medal in recognition ot his 
extraordinary record of having, at different times, 
saved the lives of more than 100 persons from 
drowning. 

85. 86. Congress, by the act of June 16, 1874, 
authorized the striking of medals in commemora- 
tion of the Centennial celebration at Philadelphia 
in 1876, and two were struck at the expense of the 
Centennial Board of Finance for sale and distri- 
bution. 

We come now to a class of medals distinctly 
national in their character, but so multiplied in 
number that it is impossible here to do more than 
refer to them. 

87, 88. On the same day, June 20, 1874, that 
the medal was voted to John Horn, Jr., Congress 
passed the following act : 

^^ Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed 
to cause to be prepared medals of honor, with suitable devices, to 
be distinguished as life-saving medals of the first and second class, 
which shall be bestowed upon any persons who shall hereafter 
endanger their own lives in saving lives from perils of the sea, 
within the United States or upon any American vessels. 

" Provided, That the medal of the first class shall be confined 
to cases of extreme and heroic daring, and that the medal of the 



36 



second class shall be given to cases not sufficiently distinguished 
to deserve the medals of the first class. 

" Provided, That no award of either medal shall be made to 
any person until sufficient evidence of his deserving shall be 
filed with the Secretary of the Treasury and entered upon the 
records of the Department." 

Many brave men have earned and received this 
medal since the passage of this act. 

It is a fact scarcely known outside of the army 
and navy, that our Government gives a medal or 
decoration exactly equivalent to the Iron Cross of 
Germany, the Victoria Cross of England, or the 
Legion of Honor of France, for distinguished 
military valor, and it is a singular and remarkable 
tribute to the modesty of the recipients that the 
country at large has heard so little on the subject. 

The necessity and fitness of such rewards for 
valor has been recognized by all nations, and 
no reward is more highly esteemed by military 
men than a personal decoration for distinguished 
bravery. 

General Washington by a general order at 
I^ewburg, August 7, 1782, provided, that for any 
singularly meritorious action reported by a board 
of officers, men should have their names enrolled 
in the book of merit, and should wear a heart in 
purple cloth or silk, edged with narrow lace or 
binding, and when so decorated should be per- 
mitted to pass all guards and sentinels, which 
officers are permitted to do. 



37 

During the Mexican war officers were rewarded 
by brevets, and deserving privates by certificates 
of merit and $2 additional monthly pay. 

89. But during the Civil war these makeshifts 
were abandoned, and the Acts, of July 12, 1862, 
and March 3, 1863, provided that medals of honor 
should be given to such officers, non-commissioned 
officers and privates who have most distinguished, 
or may hereafter most distinguish themselves by 
gallantry in action. Up to the end of the war in 
1865, 330 of these medals had been given and 
some 300 more have been given since that time. 

90. The acts of December 21, 1861, and July 16, 
1862, made similar provisions for the navy, but 
excluded commissioned officers. 

The writer was informed by a distinguished 
naval officer that 338 of these medals were given 
during the war and 113 since. 

This concludes the list of National Medals 
properly so-called : but there is another one that 
ought to be in existence, voted as far back as 1857 
to the celebrated Arctic explorer. Dr. Elisha Kent 
Kane. This distinguished naval officer died at the 
early age of thirty-seven years, and it was only 
after his death that the medal was voted. 

The Superintendent of the Mint in a letter 

under date March 5, 1887, says, " The Dr. E. K. 

Kane Medal was not struck at the Mint, but I am 

informed that it was manufactured in JN'ew York." 

6 



38 

The writer has not as yet, however, been able to 
obtain any reliable information about it. 

A large number of other medals have been 
struck at the Mint. Some of them by order of 
State Legislatures, called sub-national medals ; 
some of them for private individuals. Many of 
these are of great historical interest, but not being 
national in the sense of being voted by Congress, 
they do not come within the scope of this paper.^ 

But there is a class of medals, badges or orders 
growing out of our various wars which should be 
briefly mentioned. The oldest of these is the 
Order of the Cincinnati. 

This society was formed by the officers of the 
Revolutionary army at the cantonments in JN'ew- 
burg on the Hudson in May, 1783. The original 
institution adopted at that time thus describes the 
purpose of its formation : 

" To perpetuate therefore as well the remembrance of this vast 
event (the Revolution) as the mutual friendships which have 
been formed under the pressure of common danger and in many 

^ Congress has in various instances, in granting a gold medal to success- 
ful commanders, ordered that a silver medal should be given to each of 
the subordinate commissioned officers engaged in the action. But as these 
silver medals are simply copies of tiie ones in gold given to the command- 
ing officers, they are not here separately enumerated, all being of the same 
design, and therefore to be considered as but one medal, exactly as the 
numerous life-saving and Army and Navy Medals of honor are all repro- 
ductions of one original. 

In the cases of Colonel John Stewart and Colonel de Fleury, subordinate 
officers at Stony Point, the resolution of Congress thanked them by name, 
and two distinct medals were struck, one by Duvivier and the other by 
Gatteaux, each having its separate and original design, and neither bearing^ 
any resemblance to the gold medal of Gen. Wayne. 



39 



instances cemented by the blood of the parties, the officers of the 
American army do hereby in the most solemn manner associate, 
constitute and combine themselves into one society of friends, to 
endure as long as they shall endure or any of their eldest male 
posterity; and in failure thereof the collateral branches who may 
be judged worthy of becoming its supporters and members." 

The principles which are declared to be immu- 
table are : to inculcate to the latest ages the duty 
of laying down in peace arms assumed for the 
public defense in war ; to perpetuate the mutual 
friendships commenced under the pressure of 
common danger ; and to effectuate the acts of 
benevolence dictated by the spirit of brotherly 
kindness towards those officers and their families 
who unfortunately may be under the necessity of 
receiving them. 

The society declared to be eligible all com- 
missioned officers of the army and navy of the 
United States, who left the service with reputation, 
and foreign officers not lower in rank than colonels 
or captains in the navy ranking as colonels. The 
original membership was about 2,000, with Gen- 
eral Washington as President as long as he lived ; 
the present membership is however not over 500. 
The Hon. Hamilton Fish is the present Presi- 
dent- Greneral, and the Hon. Robert M. McLane 
President of the Maryland State branch. 

The bald eagle carrying the emblems on his 
breast was chosen as the insignia of the order, 
and the medal was made in Paris by M. Duval, 



40 



after designs prepared by Major L' Enfant. Dr. 
Franklin, who was later elected an honorary 
member of the society for life, did not approve 
of this selection for the following reasons, ex- 
pressed in a letter to one of his family : 

" For my own part I wish the bald eagle had uot been chosen 
as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral 
character, he does not get his living honestly. You may have 
seen him perched on some dead tree where, too lazy to fish for 
himself, he watches the labor of the fishinghawk, and when that 
diligent bird has at length taken a fish and is bearing it to his 
nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle 
pursues him and takes it from him. With all this injustice he 
is never in good case, but like those among men who live by 
sharping and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy. 
Besides he is a rank coward ; the little king bird, not bigger 
than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the 
district. He is, therefore, by no means a proper emblem for the 
brave and honest Cincinnati, who have driven all the king birds 
from our country, tho' exactly fit for that order of knights which 
the French call Chevaliers d'ludustrie." 

The medal is, however, a very handsome piece, 
and was the only foreign order allowed to be worn 
by French officers at the French Court. Many 
members settled on the land granted to them in 
the West for their services in the war, and Gen- 
eral St. Clair and Colonel Sargent, two original 
members, named their three pioneer log-cabins, at 
the junction of the Licking and the Ohio, after 
their society, and so gave it a flourishing god-child 
in the citv of Cincinnati. 

The civil war produced the military order of the 



41 

Loyal Legion, which is, I am informed, founded 
on exactly the principles of the Cincinnati, includ- 
ing the hereditary feature which has been so much 
criticized. It is confined to commissioned officers 
and numbers over 5,000. General Sheridan is the 
present Commander, succeeding the late General 
Hancock. Their medal also represents the bald 
eagle on a six-pointed star. 

The Grand Army of the Republic, also an out- 
come of the civil war, is intended to be a chari- 
table organization for officers and men. They are 
very important in numbers and have a handsome 
bronze badge. 

The Mexican war originated the Aztec Club 
and the Association of the Mexican veterans, and 
I understand that a badge has been adopted called 
the Order of the Cacti] but this I have never seen, 
nor any description of it. 

But none of these can be considered as national 
medals, inasmuch as none of them have ever re- 
ceived any direct Governmental recognition. Con- 
gress, however, by the act of July 2b^ 1868, author- 
ized the wearing of army corps badges on occasions 
of ceremony. 

The really national medals may, therefore, prop- 
erly be limited to the eighty -three already enu- 
merated^ granted by order of Congress, and, extra- 

^ Unless the historical importance of numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 ;ind 
69 gives them the national character which they lack by reason of not bav- 
ins? the sanction of a Congressional resolution. 



42 

ordinary as it may seem, there does not exist in 
any public department of our Grovernment — not 
even in the Mint itself — any complete collection 
of them. 

In 1855 the Mint was authorized to strike copies 
for sale, and it was then discovered that nearly 
all those of the Revolutionary epoch were missing. 
Most of these were, however, obtained from Paris 
by the courtesy of the French Government, which, 
more zealous than our own authorities, had pre- 
served them, and new dies were struck at our Mint. 

There are, however, three not yet at the Mint 
— those of General Wayne, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stewart and Major- General Nathaniel Greene ; 
but, after a three years' search, authentic copies 
have been procured and are now the property of 
Mr. T. Harrison Garrett, of this city — a member 
of this society. 

The city of Baltimore earned the name of the 
Monumental City, because of her taking the initi- 
ative in honoring the memory of Washington by 
the beautiful marble shaft which is to-day one 
of her greatest ornaments, and the erection of 
other historic memorials, and it would seem to 
be especially fitting that from the city of Baltimore 
should begin the action which will cause these 
medals to be properly preserved, and placed on 
record in all the public departments, and in every 
State and Territory in the Union. 



43 



The larger projects of Dr. Franklin, Thomas 
Jefferson and John Jay, already mentioned in 
this paper, did not, it is true, meet with the 
approval of Congress so far as we know ; but the 
modified scheme embodied in the joint resolution 
prepared by your committee and already read to 
you, if it fails now, can be tried again in the next 
Congress. 

For these are the heirlooms of the Republic. 
They were given by a grateful country " in ^er- 
'pehiam rei memoriam^'''' and they record men and 
things, which this people must not allow to pass 
into oblivion. 

Here in these fourscore little pieces of metal, is 
an epitome of the history of the United States. 
Her victories in war and in peace, the achieve- 
ments of her sons in the arts and sciences, and 
the munificence and patriotism of her citizens, in 
the hour of their country's need all are recorded 
here. 

And although they may be but the dry bones of 
history, they are the visible material object lessons 
which every American child, learning his country's 
history should be familiar with. 

And when some Dr. Schliemann of the future, in 
taking an archaeological tour in company with 
Macaulay's New Zealander, may commence his 
excavations on the site of the ruined capital of 
some State, to-day the newest of western terri- 



44 



tories, he shall exhume, stamped on imperishable 
metal, in this collection of national medals, the 
history of the United States. He will not know 
the fact, nor perhaps will we, but none the less its 
existence there will be due to the efforts of the 
Maryland Historical Society, if it succeeds in 
accomplishing even partially, the work that was 
left unfinished by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas 
Jefferson and John Jav. 



APPENDIX. 



At the regular meeting of the Maryland Historical Society in 
April, 1885, the attention of the Society was called to the fact 
that no complete collection of the National Medals voted by 
Congress was known to exist in any of the departments of the 
government although a number of them were preserved in some 
form at the United States Mint in Philadelphia. 

Considering that in the interest of education and for historical 
reference, the preservation and publication of these medals is an 
important national matter, the Society then passed a resolution 
constituting a committee for the purpose of investigating the 
subject, and taking such steps as they might deem proper to 
bring it to the notice of the general government. 

This committee was composed of Messrs. T. Harrison Garrett, 
Lennox Birckhead and Richard M. McSherry, the latter being 
the chairman. 

After some correspondence with the officials at the Mint, the 
committee concluded that the first practical step was to obtain 
the originals or authentic copies of those medals which are not 
and never have been at the Mint. 

These are but four in number, namely, those of General 
Wayne, Colonel Stewart and General Greene, all originally 
struck in France, and that of Doctor Elisha Kent Kane, which 
has never been struck at all, so far as the committee can discover. 

After a two years' search, involving much correspondence, one 
of the committee got intelligence of the existence of authentic 
copies of the Wayne, Stewart and Greene medals, and these 
copies are now in Baltimore, the property of another member of 
the committee, Mr. Garrett. 

7 45 



46 



Immediately after procuring these copies the committee pre- 
pared the following resolution, which was offered in the House 
of Representatives January 30, 1887, by the Hon. Jno. V. L. 
Findlay. 

Joint Resolution authorizing and requiring the Secretary of 
the Treasury to have struck copies of certain medals and to 
deliver the same to certain departments and to the various 
States and Territories. 

Whereas, at various times by order of the Congress of the 
United States, National Medals have been issued in commemo- 
ration of great national events, deeds of valor of our naval and 
military heroes, important public services by citizens, and the 
administration of our Presidents. 

And whereas, it is believed that no complete set of these medals 
is in the possession of the United States Government in the Mint 
or elsewhere. 

And whereas, in the interest of education and for historical 
reference, their careful preservation in some form accessible to 
all citizens, is most important as exact memorials of events and 
personages notable in our national history, and to be remembered 
with patriotic pride. 

Now therefore be it resolved by the Senate and Souse of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

That the Secretary of the Treasury be and is hereby required 
to have struck off at the United States Mint complete sets of all 
the National Medals of the classes above named. 

And in case a die or copy of any of such medals is not in the 
possession of the Mint, then the Secretary of the Treasury is 
hereby required to procure the original medal, or an authentic 
copy thereof, and to prepare a new die making an exact repro- 
duction of the original. 

And the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and 
required to distribute these complete ^ets when made as follows : 

One set in the original metal as first issued, to all executive 
departments of the United States Government at Washington. 

One set in bronze to each of the States of the Union and the 
Territories, to be by them preserved accessible to the public in 
such form as the various Legislatures may prescribe. 



47 



And the cost of dies, material and distribution shall be defrayed 
by the United States Mint at Philadelphia out of its contingent 
fund. 

This resolution was submitted to the Director of the Mint who 
approved of it, and was referred to the committee on coinage, 
weights and measures, and the only member of that committee 
who was referred to on the subject expressed himself as strongly 
in favor of it. 

Time, however, did not allow the resolution to be reported, by 
the committee on coinage, &c., and voted on by Congress, but 
there was no reason to apprehend any opposition to the measure, 
especially as the Director of the Mint estimated that the expense 
would be very small, and could be defrayed by the Mint out of 
its contingent fund. 

It is the intention of the committee to have the resolution again 
presented in the next Congress. And the object of the chairman 
of the committee in preparing this paper, was to put clearly before 
the Society the purpose and scope of the resolution, and to set 
forth what seems to him its great historical and educational im- 
portance, in the hope that every person who reads the paper may 
lend his influence and assistance towards the accomplishment of 
so worthy a project. 



THE LAYMAN IN LAW. 



An Address Delivered Before the Catholic 
Association of Baltimore City, 

11th of IN'OVEMBER, 1890. 



THERE are three professions, ordinarily called 
the learned professions, and sometimes called 
the three black graces — Law, Physic and 
Divinity. To Divinity is assigned the care of the 
soul ; to Physic, the care of the body ; and to 
Law, the care of life, property and all man's 
material and worldly affairs. 

And they are always mentioned in the order 
named. I suppose because as in great ceremonial 
processions, the greatest comes last, and that pro- 
fession, itself earthly, which cares only for the 
things of earth, takes the humbler place ahead 
of the professions which provide for the welfare 
of the man corporeal, and the man spiritual. 

Certain it is, that while all good men recognize 
the necessity of religion for the soul, and of medi- 

49 



50 



cine for the body, they do not so clearly see the 
beneficent effect of law, and the labors of the 
family lawyer are apt to be regarded with critical, 
not to say suspicious, scrutiny, where the minis- 
trations of the parish priest and the family doctor 
are accepted in the fullest faith and confidence. 

Now, no minister of any religion teaches that 
religion alone will save the soul. " Faith, without 
works is dead." The active co-operation of the 
man must supplement the ministration of the 
church ; and each man must work out his own 
salvation. 

JSTo doctor, however learned, can cure by science 
alone. The patient, on his side, by strict com- 
pliance with regimen and by a general knowledge 
and practice of the laws of hygiene, must co-operate 
with his physician if he would be cured. The 
science of medicine will do little good to the man 
who will not, as far as he can, be his own doctor. 
Indeed, it is said that every man, after forty years 
of age, must be a physician or a fool. 

The science of law needs as much, or more, than 
either divinity or physic, the active co-operation of 
all who would feel its beneficial effects. In these 
United States it is " of the people, by the people, 
and for the people," and there is no person here 
present who can not, if he will, be an actor in the 
creation of such new laws as he considers for the 
interest of the community, as well as a law-abiding 



51 

citizen, a supporter and defender of the good laws 
that do exist. 

In Shakespeare's King Henry VI the rebel Jack 
Cade promises his followers that he will overthrow^ 
the government, and give the people a millenium, 
where all men shall have the good things of earth. 
Dick, the butcher, one of his ardent supporters, 
immediately exclaims, " The first thing we do let-s 
kill all the lawyer s.^^ Whereupon Jack answers, 
^^ Nay^ that I mean to do^ I hope that to-day public 
sentiment against the legal profession, is not quite 
so strong as Shakespeare would have us believe 
it was in the time of Henry VI, and that the 
American public does not consider that the vio- 
lent removal of all lawyers would be so great a 
public benefit as Jack Cade and Dick the butcher 
promptly agreed that it would be. Still, there is 
in our world a considerable amount of antipathy 
to law and lawyers, and not a few people look 
upon law as a mysterious monster, an unavoidable 
but disagreeable factor in the affairs of life, w^hich 
wise men will have as little as possible to do with, 
and Dean Swift comes very near voicing a popular 
sentiment when he says, " Law is a bottomless 
pit ; it is a cormorant, a harpy that devours every- 
thing." In the realms of fiction, poets, novelists 
and playwrights always choose the lawyer as the 
villain of the story. In his wicked brain, is con- 
cocted the diabolical plot that entraps the unwary ; 



52 

makes the innocent appear guilty, and robs the 
rightful heir of his inheritance ; and the devil 
himself is said to be the lawyer's patron saint. 

Notwithstanding all this, there are a number of 
respectable men of some education and position, 
in the United States, and here in this city of 
Baltimore, who have adopted this wicked pro- 
fession, and, as judges, advocates, solicitors and 
attorneys, earn, more or less, daily bread by the 
practice of it. To them I do not speak. Let us 
hope that they are able to take care of themselves, 
or, in the last resort, may address themselves to 
their patron saint. What I have to say is ad- 
dressed to those who are called laymen, men not 
"learned in the law," as the technical phrase goes, 
but whose whole lives from the cradle to the grave, 
is controlled by the laws of the land, and to whom 
law is the guide and ruler in the social and 
material order, as is religion to the professing 
christian in the moral and spiritual order. And 
this class comprises the whole community, except 
the habitual criminal and law breaker. 

Law is simply the result of the combination of 
all the good people in a community to protect 
themselves against the bad. And the great body 
of rules of action to which we give the general 
name of law, has grown with the growth of the 
world, as the wisdom of each succeeding age dis- 
covered and crystalized into precepts, that doctrine. 



53 

which the experience and judgment of the good 
men of the time declared to be most conducive to 
the protection and welfare of the good, and to the 
control and punishment of the bad. 

And as this process is always going on, and as 
the audience which does me the honor to hear me 
this evening, is composed 1 am sure of the wise 
and the good, who are all of necessity among the 
law makers of to-day, as I shall presently endeavor 
to show, I will give a short account of the evo- 
lution of law, and the great part therein which is 
the work of the layman as a law maker. 

There are certain instincts not the result of 
reason, but like axioms in mathematics, self- 
evident truths to each individual, which may be 
considered the beginning of law. The protoplasm 
or primordial germ from which it has been 
evolved. 

These instincts are natural laws which even the 
brute creation shares with man. Such, for instance, 
as the protection and feeding of the young by the 
mother and the right and duty of each individual 
to protect his life, &c. 

The savage man, the first man Adam, received 
his laws direct from the Almighty. The first 
contract, the contract of marriage, was sanctioned 
and ordered by Him, and by Him directly was 
ordered the punishment for the first torts, the 
eating of the apple by Eve, and the murder of 
8 



54 



Abel by Cain. And so law and religion were one 
and the same, or at least the observance of law 
was a necessary part of religion. And the revealed 
law as contained in the Bible, and the natural 
law implanted in every man by the great Creator 
Himself, form that first great body of laws which 
as Blackstone says, " is dictated by Grod Himself, 
and of course superior in obligation to any other. 
It is binding over all the globe, in all countries 
and at all times ; no human laws are of any valid- 
ity if contrary to this, and such of them as are 
valid, derive all their force and all their author- 
ity mediately or immediately from this original." 

The ten commandments are laws to all Chris- 
tians to-day, as much as they were to Moses on 
Sinai, although the new revelation of Christianity 
has eliminated from the Mosaic law the harshness 
and rigor expressed in the old severe doctrine of 
" an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," and 
substituted in its place the gospel of love and for- 
giveness. Justinian reduced the Roman law to 
three precepts : " Honeste vivere, alter um non 
Isedere, suum cuique tribuere," that is, to live 
with decorum, to hurt nobody, and to give to 
every man his due. These precepts certainly 
teach nothing in conflict with the law of either 
the old or new testament. 

Passing over then the long contest between 
might and right under the feudal system, we come 



55 



to the time and the country when and where 
began that which we call the common law, the 
direct ancestor and progenitor of our common 
law. 

This common law is the law made by layman, 
not by rulers nor by law^yers, but by the people 
themselves as circumstances and times changed, 
and as necessity created new customs and new 
rules for governing communities. 

The divine law, the law^ of nature, is fixed and 
immutable ; it is the foundation of all ; but on 
this our Anglo-Saxon ancestors have super-added 
another great principle : that the good of the 
people is the supreme law, " Salus populi suprema 
lex," and from the earliest times to the present 
day, they and their descendants on this side of 
the water, whenever they found out what they 
believed to be the greater good of the greater 
number, like Captain Cuttle, they made a note of 
it, and had it made a law j^eaceahly if they could, 
and if not peaceably then some other way. 

It would be far beyond the scope of this paper 
to attempt even a sketch of the progress of Eng- 
lish law from the time of Alfred the Great to 
the American Revolution ; but the changes that 
were made were all brought about by the action 
of the people, who wrested from unwilling kings, 
such charters, laws or statutes as they, the people 
of England, demanded as their right. 



66 

Of this period I shall select one shining exam- 
ple as an illustration, Magna Charta, generally 
called the great charter of English liberties, a 
document so essentially the work of laymen, that 
only three of the twenty-six signers were able 
to write their names, all the others simply making 
their cross-mark in place of their signatures. 
The ancient British laws were first translated 
into Saxon, and published about the year 600, 
under Ethelbert; and the judicial code of England, 
at the time of the Norman conquest in 1066, was 
the collection commenced by Alfred, continued by 
Canute and Edgar, and completed by Edward the 
Confessor. All these laws were made by the 
people, at their general councils or parliaments 
which had been held in England from imme- 
morial time. King Alfred obtained for a per- 
petual usage that these councils should meet 
twice in the year, or oftener if need be, " to 
treat of the government of God's people, how 
they should keep themselves from sin, should live in 
quiet, and should receive rights (What a fine 
motto this would be to ornament the walls of 
the State House in Annapolis.) So that it was 
always considered the privilege and the duty of 
the English people, to resist any encroachment 
on their ancient laws and liberties, and to demand 
such new ones as they needed. 

The JN^orman conquest was a great and well- 



57 

nigh fatal blow to the liberties of Britain. The 
power of William the Norman was that of a 
conqueror, and he ruled as a victor, to whom 
belonged all the spoils of the vanquished. The 
laws which he made looked only to the sup- 
porting of the royal power, and superseded the 
ancient laws of the people, just as the JNTorman 
adventurers superseded the ancient owners of 
the land. 

When the whole people of a country are satis- 
fied that laws are bad, it is only a question of 
time when those laws shall be done away with. 
Discontent grows to agitation and agitation brings 
repeal. The true republican idea, the right of 
men to be well governed in accordance with the 
best interest of the community, is natural justice 
which men appreciated in the eleventh and twelfth 
century as they do to-day, but the voice of the 
masses could not make itself heard with the ease 
and certainty of the nineteenth century, and a re- 
publican form of government. 

The church was the real mouthpiece of the 
people, and the barons made common cause with 
it. All through the reigns of William I., William 
Rufus, Henry I. and Stephen, repeated attempts 
were made to force these sovereigns to restore the 
ancient liberties. When the King was weak he 
promised and never performed ; when the King 
was strong he would hear no reason, exactly as in 



58 

the old rhyme, which tells us that : " When the 
devil was sick, the devil a monk would be, but 
when he became convalescent he thought better 
of it." 

Finally, under Henry I., about the year 1100, 
was granted a charter wherein it was declared 
" that the church should he free and that evil customs 
should he aholished,^^ and indeed it mentions the 
greater part of those privileges which were con- 
firmed a century later by King John in Magna 
Charta. 

This King was an usurper. Prince Arthur, the 
son of his older brother, Geoifry, was the rightful 
heir to the throne, and John and his supporters, 
to make his cause popular, began his reign with 
the promise of reform. He promised to restore 
those liberties the people so earnestly desired, to 
confirm the charter of Henry I. and to renew the 
laws of Edward the Confessor. 

Human nature has not changed greatly in all 
these centuries. We have ourselves some practical 
knowledge of the fact, that the promises of reform, 
made by a party, at the beginning of the political 
campaign, are not always strictly carried out when 
the time comes for their fulfilment after the elec- 
tion. And so it was with King John ; like all 
his predecessors, he wanted laws that were good 
for the King, and not laws that were good for the 
Kingdom. To repeated demands for the promised 



59 



reform he gave evasive answers, and it was soon 
evident that of his own free will nothing would 
be done. But he had to deal with men ; men 
who knew their rights and knowing dared to main- 
tain them. When he w^anted to invade France, 
in 1213, the Barons all refused to attend him as 
he was an excommunicated man, and he seems 
to have been destitute of other aid and driven to 
desperation. Matthew Paris relates that he sent 
an embassy to the King of Africa {sic) with an 
offer of the Kingdom of England to be held as 
tributary from him, and a promise that he would 
apostatise and become a Mohammedan, provided 
that aid should be given him against his disloyal 
subjects. 

His excommunication and the interdict upon 
the Kingdom lasted six years, when he concluded 
to submit to the inevitable, and received from 
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, abso- 
lution from his excommunication after taking 
the following oath, administered to him by that 
prelate : 

" That he would diligently defend the ordinances of the Holy 
Church, and that his hand should be against all her enemies, 
that the good laws of his ancestors especially those of King Edward 
the Confessor, should he recalled, and the evil ones destroyed, and 
that his subjects should receive justice according to the upright 
decree of his courts." 

But even after this he endeavored to temporise 
and put off the evil day, and the year 1214 passed 



60 

away without any appearance of the liberties of 
Magna Charta being instituted. On the 20th of 
November of that year, Saint Edmund's day, a 
meeting of the clergy and Barons was held at 
St. Edmund's Bury, to formulate their demands 
and prepare for their enforcement. The old 
charter of King Henry the First, as was the 
custom of those days, had been sent in the year 
1100, the year of its promulgation, to all the 
counties and copies deposited in the principal 
monasteries. One of these copies was produced 
at this meeting by Archbishop Langton, who 
stood at the high altar and gave the sanction of 
Mother Church to the oath of the Barons. They 
swore " that the King should immediately grant 
and confirm the old laws and liberties by a 
charter under his seal, or that they would with- 
draw themselves from his fealty, until they should 
gain the satisfaction they desired, and that after 
the Nativity of our Lord they should come to 
the King in a body to desire a confirmation of 
the liberties before mentioned." 

At the feast of the Epiphany in the year 1215 
they appeared before the King at the New Temple 
Inn in London. To quote the words of the his- 
torian Matthew Paris. " Here then came to the 
King the aforesaid great Barons in a very reso- 
lute manner, with their military dresses and 
weapons, almost demanding the liberties and laws 



61 



of King Edward, with others for themselves, the 
Kingxlom, and the church of England, to be 
granted and confirmed according to the charter 
of King Henry the First, contained in the before- 
mentioned writing." They asserted moreover that 
at the time of his absolution at Winchester, those 
ancient laws and liberties were promised, and 
that he was obliged to observe them by a special 
oath. 

" But the King hearing that the Barons were so 
resolute in their demands was much concerned at 
their impetuosity ; when he saw that they were 
furnislied for battle, he replied that it was a great 
and difficult thing which they asked, from which 
he required a respite until after Easter, that he 
might have space for consideration, and if it were 
in the power of himself, or the dignity of his 
crown, they should receive satisfaction. But at 
length after many proposals the King unwillingly 
consented that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
Bishop of Ely, and William Marshall should be 
made sureties and that by reason of their inter- 
cession on the day fixed he would satisfy all." 

The slippery King had done nothing when 
Easter day arrived, and again endeavored to gain 
time by asking for a further account of " those 
laws and liberties so earnestly desired." The 
Barons returned him a schedule of the requests, 
but being by this time in that frame of mind, 
9 



62 



which the plain but picturesque English of our 
day describes as ^''fighting mad,^^ they informed 
him, that if he did not at once keep his word, they 
would force his lingering consent by seizing upon 
his fortresses. To this the King answered, with a 
passionate oath, " that his consent would never be 
yielded to liberties which would involve his pre- 
rogative in slavery." 

Here was the issue sharply made. On the one 
side the King, who wanted only such law as was 
good for kings and their immediate courtiers and 
beneficiaries. On the other, the people of England, 
headed by the churchmen and most of the barons, 
who wanted " the ancient laws and liberties of the 
people." 

They acted promptly, having elected Robert 
Fitzwalter, Baron of Dunmow, their leader, under 
the modest title of " Marshall of God and the Holy 
Church." The army marched to Bedford, captured 
the castle there, and proceeded to London, where 
the citizens had agreed to deliver up to them one 
of the city gates. Before the King was even aware 
of their movements, they had entered the city of 
London at Aldgate, and on the 24th of May, at 
daybreak, they were besieging the tower of London, 
where he had fled for protection. Resistance was 
hopeless now ; he yielded, and it only remained to 
fix the time for the conclusion and ratification of 
the great charter. 



63 

On the 5th day of June, 1215, the conflicting par- 
ties met in a large meadow, called Runningmede, 
or Runnemede, on the Thames, between Staines 
and Windsor. The popular party was repre- 
sented by the barons, followed by vast multitudes 
of people, while the King w^as attended with but 
few supporters. On the 15th of June the great seal 
of England was appended to Magna Charta, which 
was likewise confirmed by the King's solemn oath. 

I have stated with some particularity the prog- 
ress of the negotiations which resulted in the 
signing of this great document, because not only 
does it show what laymen have done as law- 
makers, but it is practically a surrender by the 
King or executive power of a great part of the 
legal machinery. It confides to laymen exclusively 
the administration of criminal law ; for in criminal 
cases the jury are judges of both law and fact, and 
in civil cases makes the juror, who is of necessity 
*' not learned in law," the judge of the facts 
presented by the evidence. Indeed, the 39th and 
last article places in the hands of the people the 
enforcement of this very Magna Charta. It pro- 
vides, that in case the King, or the Justiciaries or 
bailiffs of the King, or any of his ministers, shall, 
towards any person, fail in the performance of, or 
break through these articles, and the offence shall 
not be redressed without delay, " the whole com- 
munity of the land, with twenty -five of the barons, 



64 

shall distrain and distress the King, by all the 
means which they can, that is to say, by taking 
his castles, lands and possessions, and in every 
other manner which thev can, until amendment 
shall be made according to their decision." 

And the enforcement of all English and American 
law has ever since been, in the final case, in the 
hands of the whole community of the land, or as we 
say in good American, "We, the people." 

Of the 38 articles of Magna Charta the greater 
part related to matters which, while they were 
very live issues, and very real grievances then, 
have little interest now, except to the student of 
legal history. The great article, that which is 
justly called the bulwark of our liberties, is 
Chapter 29, which, in the original, reads : 

" Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur ant dissasiatur 
ant utlagetur ant exuletur, ant aliquo modo destruatur ; nee 
super eum ibimus, nee super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judi- 
eium parium suorum, vel per legem terrae." 

It is said that law latin is bad latin, but if this 
is bad latin it is grand law. Hear it in the 
vernacular : 

" ISTo free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or dispossessed or 
outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed ; nor will we eon- 
demn him, nor will we commit him to prison, excepting by the 
legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." 

This article alone is enough to show why the act 
is called the great charter, and taken in connection 



Cd3 

with the preceding and succeeding articles, it pro- 
vides for the protection of all the rights of man 
before the law. 

Together, they show how a man can be put upon 
his oath, declare that until after trial and conviction 
by his peers or the law of the land, he shall not be 
treated as a guilty person, and as the last article 
says : 

"To none will we sell, to none will we deny, to none will we 
delay right or justice." 

No man can ask for more than a speedy trial 
and a fair trial, and here is confirmed his right 
to both ; with a jury of laymen, his peers, to decide 
the matter, and the protection given by the writ 
of habeas corpus to his person as an innocent 
man, until after trial he was pronounced legally 
guilty. 

Of course trial by jury was known and practised 
long before the time of King John, but it had been 
greatly interfered with by the introduction by the 
Normans of trial by battle, as well as by the 
arbitrary edicts of the King and his bailiffs, the 
term bailiffs including judges of courts and all 
degrees of king's officers. 

This trial by battle is long since obsolete, but 
a description of one may interest you as showing 
the crude ideas of the time. 

Each party chose a champion to try his case 
as he would to-day come to a lawyer, but as a 



66 



thick skull was one of the first requisites of a 
champion, I hope he differed in that respect 
from the modern lawyer. 

A piece of ground sixty feet square was enclosed. 
The judges of the court of common pleas, in their 
scarlet robes, and the sergeants-at-law attended. 
Court began at sunrise, and the champions ap- 
peared dressed in armor, but bare-legged from 
the knees downwards, bare-headed and with arms 
bare to the elbows. Each was armed onlv with 
a stick four feet long and a leather shield. Before 
beginning the trial they took the following oath : 
" Hear this, ye justices, that I have this day neither 
eat, drank, nor have upon me neither bone, stone, 
nor grass, nor any enchantment, sorcery or witch- 
craft, whereby the law of Grod may be abased or 
the law of the devil exalted, so help me God and 
His saints." 

The fight was bound to last until the stars 
appeared in the evening, unless sooner terminated 
by the surrender or death of one of the champions. 

I do not know the fee that was earned by these 
champions, but I imagine that if the law suit of 
to-day was tried in this manner, lawyers would 
be scarce. The last trial by battle was waged in 
the court of common pleas at Westminster in 
1571, although an attempt was made to hold one 
in England as late as the year 1817. 

But I have said enough about Magna Charta 



67 

to show what law, laymen made in the thirteenth 
century, and how they made it, and will pass over 
the many other important and interesting parts 
of it in defiance of my Lord Coke, who says, "As 
the gold finer will not out of the dust or shreds 
of gold let pass the least crumb in respect of the 
excellency of the metal^ so ought not the learned 
reader to pass any syllable of this law in respect 
of the excellency of the matter y 

The " liber homo " of Magna Charta, the free 
man of England of the thirteenth century was, as 
we have seen, both able and willing to assert and 
maintain his right to good law. But he differed 
in one great respect from the free man of America 
of the eighteenth century. He recognized the 
divine right of the kings and admitted the exis- 
tence of the royal prerogative. 

The free men of the thirteen American colonies, 
on the contrary, believed, as we believe, that all 
men are equal before the law in the political order, 
as they are before God in the spiritual order, 
and on the 4th of July, 1776, they declared that 

"We hold these truths to be self evident: That all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, govern- 
ments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from 
the consent of the governed." 

To maintain these principles they fought our 
revolutionary war and won it, and on these prin- 



68 



ciples they founded the first real republic of the 
world. 

The present federal government of the United 
States, under which we live, began on the 4th 
day of March, 1789, when George Washington 
took his oath of office as first president of the 
United States under the Constitution, a charter 
of liberties^ greater than Magna Charta, the organic 
law of this land, a document which Mr. Gladstone 
has declared to be the greatest and most perfect 
ever drawn by man. This is the peopWs law, 
a declaration made by the wise and thoughtful 
of the American freemen, fresh from the field 
of battle, where they had for seven long years 
attested with their blood the sincerity of their 
convictions. And when the constitutional con- 
vention in Philadelphia had finished their labors 
and framed this document, the palladium of 
American liberty, they submitted it for ratifica- 
tion, not to a sovereign king, but to the sovereign 
people. 

The constitution was adopted on the 17th of 
September, 1787, by the convention, but the people 
of each of the thirteen States, in conventions 
assembled for that purpose, reviewed it, and care- 
fully examined its provisions before final ratifica- 
tion. The first State to ratify was Delaware, on 
the 7th of December, 1787, and the last, Rhode 
Island, on the 29th of May, 1790. Our own State 



69 

of Maryland came seventh on the list, on the 28th 
of April, 1788. 

The preamble states who are the makers of 
this law. 

" We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more 
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, 
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, 
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
of America." . 

And the second section of the sixth article 
declares that : 

" This constitution and the laws of the United States, which 
shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or 
which shall be made under the authority of the United States 
shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or 
laws of any State J;o the contrary notwithstanding." 

Here is the very pith and marrow of written 
law, the arcJiitype^ a document which says : I am 
the test by which all law shall be tried ; I am 
the law of the law. JN'either the judge on the 
bench, nor the legislature of a State, nor even the 
constitution of a State, shall proclaim as laws any- 
thing contrary to my law. 

x\nd the authors of this article, unique, as De 
Tocqueville says in the legislation of the world, 
were not princes or rulers, nor judges, nor lawyers, 
nor bailiffs, nor of any one class, hut laymen, " w;^; 
the people. ^^ 
10 



70 



I shall not attempt to enumerate the provisions 
of our constitution. It is, or it ought to be, 
familiar to OA^ery one of you. It proclaims every 
great principle of law necessary to the govern- 
ment of freemen, religious liberty, the right to 
legislate, the right of protection to life and prop- 
erty, the right to freedom. For more than one 
hundred years it has been our ^'feste hurg^l'' our 
strong castle of refuge. A quarter of a century 
ago differing constructions of its provisions as to 
State's rights, brought about our civil war, but 
it stood the shock, and is to-day the glory alike 
of the vanquished and the victors. Such is the 
layman's laws of the eighteenth century. 

Law is both written and unwritten. I have 
chosen Magna Charta and our constitution as 
examples of the people's law in its written form ; 
and we must now say something about unwritten 
law. 

We all know what unwritten law is, and how 
binding it is. It permeates every stratum of 
society. It is unwritten law that a gentleman 
should take otf his hat to a lady when he salutes 
her. jN"o statute enforces this, and no judge has 
declared it to be law. There is even no penalty 
enforcible for its non-performance, except that 
the community will consider the trangressor an 
ill-mannered fellow. Nevertheless, it is a law we 
all observe. It is an unwritten law that in the 



71 

negotiations preliminary to the important contract 
of matrimony, the initiative shall be taken by 
the masculine party, and the formal proposition 
shall come from him, the feminine party having 
what is called in law the right of election, after 
due consideration, to accept or reject the proposed 
contract. Yet it is fairly argued that both par- 
ties being equal, and equally interested in the 
convenant if made, either party should have the 
right to open negotiations. I cannot give expert 
testimony in this regard, having only been married 
once ; but I understand this unwritten law to be 
well settled, as I have stated it, and universally 
observed, although I am not aware of any penalty 
for its non-observance. I once lived in a country 
where the unwritten law made it obligatory on 
approaching a house to bring your horse to a 
walk and shout "Ave Maria " until you received 
an answer and an invitation to dismount. The 
penalty for non-compliance, being that the owner 
of the house might shoot you ; and he would be 
upheld by the community in so doing. As all 
the travel in that country was done on horseback, 
this was a law that a traveler very soon learnt 
and strictly observed, although it was laid down 
in no statute, and promulgated by no government 
authority. 

There is throughout the world an unwritten 
law called fashion, which dictates what costume 



72 

we shall wear, often in defiance of the laws of 
hygiene and the lines of beauty. Its rules are 
generally beyond the grasp of the masculine mind, 
but the ladies know them and scrupulously observe 
them. We can all remember some years ago how 
great was the transformation in the human form 
divine, made by the discarding of the crinoline 
or hoop-skirt, when all our womankind became 
simultaneously and suddenly slender and elegant, 
in obedience to the mandate of some mysterious, 
but very potent authority. 

In England all vehicles pass to the left, because 
the driver can see the wheels of both his own 
and the approaching vehicle. In all other coun- 
tries they pass to the right. And in both cases 
these are the unwritten, but well understood laws 
of the road. 

But it is useless to multiply instances of these 
social customs, which are well understood and 
well observed. They only differ from the common 
law in this, that they have not needed for their 
promulgation and enforcement, a written statute 
or the decision of a court or law. Custom makes 
law in the great as in the small aifairs of life, 
and unwritten law in its highest and most authori- 
tative form means those customs which a judicial 
decision has declared to be so universally known 
and adopted, that it is the duty of the civil power 
to enforce them. 



73 

Every trade, every profession, every body of 
men who live constantly in relations with each 
other, have their own customs, and these become 
laws whenever they are important enough to be 
so declared judicially. But it is not the decision 
which makes them laws. That only formally 
notifies all men of their existence as such, and 
what force and effect they have, comes from the 
agreement, the consensus of the individuals com- 
posing the trade, profession or society, which has 
created these customs and lived under them. It 
is a maxim of law that " cuilibet in sua arte cre- 
dendum est" which may be freely translated that 
every man knows his own business best. The 
law is an eclectic science and picks up information 
wherever it can find it. That which is called 
the Lex Mercatoria or the custom of merchants, 
is a notable example of this, even where such 
custom differs from the general rules of the 
common law. If it is a known and established 
custom it prevails. 

This law would uphold me in demanding thirteen 
loaves of bread from a baker on a contract for a 
dozen, if I could prove that it was the custom in 
the bakers' trade to interpret the word dozen as 
meaning thirteen and not twelve, as is the general 
meaning of the word. That is, the jpeojple make the 
custom, and custom makes the law. 

Thus we have seen that laymen have made 



74 



both the written and the unwritten law, and they 
are still making it and will continue to do so as 
long as free government or free men exist. The 
good mother who in her nursery decides some 
complicated case of the right of property in a 
doll, and awards the possession to the successful 
litigant while the maternal slipper carries out 
her sentence on the wrong doer, is a judge sitting 
both in common law^ and equity, sheriff, jury 
and lord high executioner. And every lady and 
gentleman present is a law-maker, perhaps as 
unconsciously as the famous French gentleman 
who had been speaking in j^rose all his life with- 
out knowing it. 

But to come from the abstract to the concrete. 
Some twelve or fifteen years ago the Irish people 
began to exercise a freeman's prerogative as a law- 
maker. They demanded new land laws, they elected 
men to parliament who were as able as they were 
willing to represent their constituents. Against 
tremendous opposition this organized voice of the 
people has prevailed, and such changes have been 
made in the laws, that I was told a short time 
ago in Ireland, that the master of the situation 
to-day was the tenant, not the landlord. 

Last winter, in this city, the people demanded 
a new law for licensing the sale of liquor. The 
opposition to it was powerful, organized and 
wealthy, but the people met in counsel and 



75 



determined that the law should pass and it did 
j^ass. Many of the gentlemen here present, no 
doubt, assisted at the meeting of citizens to advo- 
cate this law, held at the Academy of Music and 
presided over by His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, 
a prelate as fearless and as ready to advocate 
and demand good law for Americans, as was 
Cardinal Langton to demand Magna Charta for 
Englishmen. The people of this country and 
this State became alarmed on the subject of the 
purity of elections and demanded a law, which 
provided for an absolutely secret ballot, and they 
have it in the new Australian ballot law. 

And the power which makes can unmake. On 
the first of October last, a law was promulgated 
making a war tariff in time of peace, protecting 
the rich at the expense of the poor, and laying an 
unjust and unnecessary tax on the whole American 
people for the benefit of a few privileged classes. 

Since then the real law-makers of the country 
have met at the polls and they have proclaimed 
in trumpet tones that the McKinley Bill is not 
the people's law, and over one hundred Congress- 
men, who voted for it, including Mr. McKinley 
himself, are doubtless now convinced of the fact 
that the people know what laws they want, and 
will have none other. 

Every American citizen is a lawyer, and to the 
exercise of his good common sense, which is the 



76 

best guide for human life, we must look for the 
making of good laws and the unmaking of bad 
ones. Grood law means good government, and 
bad law means bad government, and the people 
that create those laws are responsible ; iJie whole 
peojple, not any one class. The lawman in law is 
the " fons et origo," the creating power, and those 
whom we call lawyers in contra distinction to 
laymen, are simply his ministers. 

Now I do not advocate the extinction of the 
legal profession, I am sure you will believe me 
when I say this. A miller will take his flour 
to a baker to be made into bread, and a tanner 
will take his leather to a shoemaker to be made 
into shoes, and the layman's law is generally 
raw material, which, like flour or leather, requires 
expert handling before it can be put to its proper 
use. I think and hope that there is still some 
room in the world for professional lawyers, but 
the real lawyers are the people of the land, who 
furnish the raw material, which is sometimes 
public sentiment, and sometimes popular and 
general customs, from which all the law of a 
free people must be made. 

Popular sentiment, as we all know, may be a 
very dangerous engine, until it becomes certain 
enough and well regulated enough to be declared 
law. In its crude state it sometimes begets brutal 
murder under the name of lynch law, which in 



77 

the one extreme is as great an insult to real law, 
as anarchy is in the other extreme. 

You have probably all heard an old story of 
a judge, who, on receiving what he considered 
an unjust verdict, ordered the clerk of the court 
to enter a motion for a new trial in the case, and 
turning to the twelve jurymen, said : " Gentle- 
men, I want you to know that in this court it 
takes at least thirteen men to rob a man of his 
property." 

All popular feeling is made more useful by 
having a little check of conservatism upon it in 
some form. 

The Roman school boys were obliged to learn 
by heart the twelve tables of the law. In England 
the confirmation of Magna Charta, ordered that 
copies of it should be sent to all Cathedral churches 
and read twice a year to the people. In free 
America, it should be part of the education of 
every citizen, to acquire at least a clear under- 
standing of the organic law, laid down in the 
constitution of the United States, and the consti- 
tution of his State. Personally I should be glad 
to see that a knowledge of the fundamental 
principles of our government, as set forth in the 
constitution, should be made a pre-requisite to the 
naturalization of foreigners, for the functions of 
the American citizen require intelligence as well 
as patriotism. And in these days of education, 
11 



78 

every man has at hand the means of obtaining 
for himself and his children, an exact understand- 
ing of the institutions of his country. 

He may be called on at any time to sit upon 
a jury, which will have to decide the question 
of a deprivation of liberty, or even the life or 
death of a fellow creature. He will have ta 
decide questions of fact involving the property 
of his neighbors. He may be called on at any 
time to assist in the execution of the law, as^ 
part of a sheriff's posse, or as a militiaman, 
and he is, directly or indirectly, the maker of 
the laws which it is his duty to enforce. 

Law is to him no abstract alien thing ; no 
arbitrary set of rules laid down by a power,, 
above him and beyond him. It is his own 
creature, fashioned by himself or his forefathers^ 
and under his own control. If he wants to 
modify or change it, he goes to his councilman^ 
or his legislator, or his congressman, and directs 
that it be done, and when done he will see to 
its enforcement. 

Religion and law are the two great conservative 
forces of the world. Socialists, anarchists, com- 
munists, criminals, and evil-doers of all degree 
regard them both with hatred, tempered by fear. 
These are their enemies The man who makes 
law his guide in things temporal, as he makes 
religion his guide in things spiritual, making it 



79 

part of his daily life, active in its enactment and 
its enforcement, is the ideal citizen. 

We may never live to see an Utopia peopled 
exclusively by ideal citizens ; but just in propor- 
tion to the increase among us of the knowledge 
of, and reverence and obedience to law, do we 
approach it. And to attain that " summum bonum " 
which General Washington in his farewell address 
described as " the ever favorite object of my heart, 
and the happy reward of our mutual cares, labors 
and dangers, the sweet enjoyment of partaking 
in the midst of my fellow citizens of ' the benign 
influence of good laws under a free government,' " 
we must depend upon the patriotism, the intelli- 
gence and the activity of the citizen, "the layman 
in law." 



TALKS ON TAXATION 
IN MARYLAND. 



I. The True Basis of Taxation. 

II. An Honest Tax Law. 

III. The Fifteenth Article of the Bill of 
Rights. 

lY. Home Rule in Taxation. 



PREFACE. 



The writer does not profess to be an expert on the subject of 
taxation, but has been for some years an interested student of 
political economy, of which science the question of taxation is one 
of the most important branches. 

At different times during the past three years, he has written 
the following papers, and at the request of a number of friends, 
they are now published in this pamphlet. 

While his fellow citizens of Maryland may not find in it any- 
thing novel or remarkable, he ventures to hope that this important 
subject is here presented to them from a point of view from which 
many have not considered it, and which merits their attention. 

Richard M. McSherry. 

14 East Lexington St., 
Baltimore, Nov. 28, 1893. 

81 



THE TRUE BASIS OF TAXATION 

TAX THE PROPERTY ITSELF, NOT THE 
TITLE TO IT. 



An Address Delivered Before the Tax- 
payers' Association of Baltimore 
City, February 3, 1891. 



THE 15th article of the declaration of rights 
made in the Maryland convention of 1867, 
provides " That the levying of taxes by the 
poll is grievous and oppressive and ought to be 
prohibited ; that paupers ought not to be assessed 
for the support of the government ; but every per- 
son in the State, or person holding property therein 
ought to contribute his proportion of public taxes 
for the support of the government according to his 
actual worth in real and personal property." 

In this land of universal suffrage and equality 
before the law as to life, liberty and property a poll 
tax serves no purpose. As to the non-assessment 
82 



83 



of paupers for the support of the government, that 
is a mere phrase signifying nothing. 

What diiference would it make to a jpauper 
whether he was assessed or not ; and what would 
the community get by assessing him ? But the 
last clause as to taxation, is no meaningless phrase. 
Under the interpretation given to it by our law 
makers, it has been for twenty-four years standing 
like a sentinel with a fixed bayonet, to warn capital 
aw^ay from the city of Baltimore and the State of 
Maryland. 

The actual worth of a man's real and personal 
property means its true valuation wherever it may 
be situated. And a house and lot in the city of 
London, would be just as fairly included in this 
scheme of taxation as a house and lot in the 
city of Baltimore. Now suppose that a citizen of 
Baltimore owned a house and lot in the city of 
London which w^as worth $50,000, and yields an 
income of $5,000. It would be in strict accordance 
with the terms of this article of the bill of rights, 
to say that that citizen of Baltimore must pay to 
the city of Baltimore for the privilege of owning 
this house in London, the same tax that he would 
pay on a property of equal value located in the 
city of Baltimore. 

The State of Maryland and the city of Baltimore 
would give him no police to guard it, no fire de- 
partment or troops to save it from destruction in 



84 



case of fire, riot or public disorder, no protection 
of any kind. But if this article is to be literally 
carried out and taken to be the true theory of taxa- 
tion, the city of Baltimore would have the right to 
assess to one of its citizens the value of a piece of 
real estate in London as part of " his actual worth 
in real or personal property." 

Our legislatures have done some remarkable 
things, but they have never yet attempted to 
comply with the requirements of this article to the 
extent of taxing a citizen of Mar3dand for a piece 
of real estate owned by him, but located outside of 
the State. That is they have not done it directly 
and openly. Its manifest injustice and absurdity 
prevents that. But indirectly they have done so 
in taxing stocks and bonds by a law the enforce- 
ment of which has cost our State and city in 
material prosperity and advancement, ten times 
what it has paid them in the form of taxes. Take 
the same London house and put a mortgage on it 
for $25,000, and divide the mortgage into twenty - 
five bonds of a thousand dollars each, and every 
Maryland holder of one of these bonds must pay 
taxes on them. Let the owner of the house sell it 
to five Baltimoreans, who incorporate and each 
own one-fifth of the stock, and the house becomes 
liable to taxation by the State of Maryland and 
this city, neither of which ever has, ever will, 
or ever can assist the owners in any manner, 



85 



as to the use, enjoyment or protection of this 
property. 

That is, the legislature through the legal fiction 
of stocks and bonds as personal property following 
the person, can bring a piece of foreign real estate 
under the jurisdiction of Maryland for purposes 
of taxation. It, of course, does not do so for the 
purpose of protection, or for any other purpose. 

Now, where is the difference in principle that 
induces our law-makers to think that the real 
estate outside of Maryland ought to be taxed by 
Maryland, if it is so owned by several Mary- 
landers, but ought to be free if owned by only one ? 
What potent alchemy is it that transmutes the same 
property from an untaxable to a taxable thing ? 

It is the same house in the same foreign city. 
There it must pay its taxes, and there it ought 
to pay them ; for there it receives the protection 
of law, police and government, without which it 
could not exist as property at all. 

But a stream cannot rise higher than its source. 
Our legislatures, groping about in their endeavors 
to find a fair system of taxation, have been per- 
plexed and misled by this Fifteenth Article of 
the bill of rights, which is fundamentally wrong, 
and the people of Maryland will, I hope, take by 
the beard this hoary old sinner of an article, who 
has been misleading us all these years, and shake 
some sense into his old head. We can pass over 
12 



86 



his ideas about the poll tax ; that hurts nobody ; 
and his drivel about non-assessment of paupers ; 
that means nothing ; but a declaration which lays 
down the fundamental principle on which we must 
base our system of taxation, must be in accordance 
with justice and common sense, and if it is not, 
we must make it so. 

Who will say that it is just or reasonable to 
make a Maryland man pay to Maryland, taxes 
on property that is located in and entirely pro- 
tected by another State or another government ? 
He ought to pay to the protecting government 
where the property is located, and there it will 
surely not escape. To make this article good 
justice and good sense, it needs just seven words 
added to it so that it would read : 

" But every person in the State or person 
holding property therein, ought to contribute his 
proportion of public taxes for the support of the 
government, according to his actual worth in real 
or personal property " to that government wMcJi 
'protects Ms property^ 

This seems to me to remedy the defect, and 
give the makers of our tax laws a true guiding 
principle, and the next question is what is the 
real and personal property which is to be taken 
as the basis of taxation. To do this we must set 
aside all fictions of law, and substitute in their 
place common sense and natural justice. 



87 

The accepted theory of taxation is that every 
individual should pay to the State for the pro- 
tection of his person and his property. And 
the value of life and limb being presumably 
the same to all men, the quota of each indi- 
vidual is to be measured only by the value of his 
property. 

It would seem, therefore, that the State should 
fairly demand taxes only on such property as it 
does actually protect, and not upon property be- 
yond its jurisdiction. 

And leaving out the protection of the person, 
in which every man in the community is equally 
interested, it is the duty of the citizen to pay taxes 
upon all property of every kind which the State 
protects for him. 

As between these two parties the State and the 
owner of the protected property, this contract is 
simple, equal and definite. 

But most, if not all of the United States, en- 
deavor to tax property which, if within their 
borders, has already paid its full quota ; or if 
without their borders is beyond their power to 
protect. 

This is a result of that composite ownership of 
property, the most familiar example of which is 
the lien of mortgages and bonds. 

A sees a farm which he desires to purchase, the 
price is $10,000. A possesses but $5,000, but still 



88 

he must have the farm, and he borrows the 
remaining $5,000 from B, enters into possession 
of the property and gives B a mortgage promis- 
ing to pay him $300 per year for interest. A is 
in one sense the only owner of this farm. He 
lives upon it and is known to the community as 
its proprietor, with all the enjoyments and inci- 
dents of ownership. But in truth he owns but 
one-half of that farm, paying what is in reality a 
rent to his co-owner of |300, and for the privilege 
of exclusive possession and nominal and legal 
ownership of the whole, he pays taxes on the half 
belonging to B as well as on the half which is his 
own. 

JN^ow this may be, according to the circumstances, 
a good or bad transaction for A and B, but the 
State, which protects the farm, having received the 
tax upon the whole $10,000 from A, would seem 
to have no claim upon B. An agreement by one 
man to pay taxes on the property of another, is a 
good and proper contract both in law and morals. 
'Nor is it opposed to public policy, for one citizen 
may substitute himself to perform for another even 
the highest of civic duties, the defense of the State 
in actual warfare. 

Bonds, which are but subdivisions of a mortgage 
made by a corporation, are also affected by the 
same contract, namely, that the corporation shall 
pay the entire taxation, for the privilege of owner- 



89 

ship and control of a property of which it is not in 
fact the entire owner. 

That part of the earnings of this farm or of the 
corporation, which goes to pay the interest to the 
mortgagees or bondholder, has, like the balance of 
the earnings, been secured by reason of the pro- 
tection given to the farm or property itself, and 
the question is w^hether the recipient of that 
interest, the beneficiary to that extent of the State's 
protection, should pay taxes thereon. As to mort- 
gages as such, there is diversity of opinion ; but as 
to bonds, the strong tendency of legislation has 
been in favor of taxing them, and the courts have 
sustained the leoislative enactments. 

Now this either means that a State has a right 
to double taxation, or that it has the right to base 
its tax for the protection of the j^erson upon valua- 
tion of each person's property. Double taxation is 
repugnant to law and to natural justice. And in 
the United States at least, it ought not to be argued 
that the value of a rich man's life is greater than 
the value of a poor man's. 

The strong argument in favor of this tax, is that 
an individual may, by investing his whole fortune 
in bonds and mortgages, escape all public burdens, 
although in fact enjoying the largest income in his 
community. 

JN'ow this presents a case of apparent injustice 
which requires serious consideration. 



90 

But it must be remembered — 

1. That he receives this income from a person 
or corporation who has paid full taxes to the State 
on the property which has produced such income. 

2. That no person or corporation would enter 
into the agreement to pay such taxation unless 
they believed the contract was for their benefit. 

3. To the State, which has received its full due 
from the property, the producer of the income, it is 
immaterial w^hether the income itself is paid to 
one man or one thousand men. 

And the practical result is that although this 
class of debts is declared subject to taxation, 
taxes are collected only on a small proportion of 
them, because no man willingly submits to double 
taxation. 

Direct taxes, which are laid on property in the 
hands of the consumer, and indirect taxes which 
are laid on property not in the hands of the con- 
sumer, finally fall on one and the same person, 
namely, the consumer. JVo one to-day needs to be 
told, that the man who consumes no tobacco or 
whiskey, pays none of the tobacco or whiskey tax. 
And all duties fall finally on the user of the duti- 
able articles, although long before they come to 
his possession the government has received its 
dues from importer or manufacturer. 

And the same is true of land and all visible and 
material things. The user must finally pay all 



91 



that is necessary to be paid to secure the use. 
Although legislative acts may change the form of 
the payment, they will never change this fact of 
the payment being made by the user. 

The legal division of property into real and per- 
sonal, might, for purposes of taxation, be changed 
so that all property should be classed as real or 
artificial. 

Beal property meaning the earth and everything 
on it visible, material and tangible. This repre- 
sents everything in existence which has an actual 
value in use, as opposed to a representative or 
sentimental value. 

Artificial property meaning evidence of claim 
upon, or qualified ownership in real property, of 
which another is the legal owner or user. Upon 
real property, as here defined, all taxes and im- 
posts now really fall ; and the legislation which 
has attempted to divert this fixed trade law from 
its course has done and can do, little beyond 
changing the mode of collection. 

For this property is the only thing existent of 
real value, and is the only true basis of taxation. 
It cannot, to any practical extent, be concealed ; 
its situs is defined, it is susceptible of exact valua- 
tion, and that valuation does not change because it 
has one owner or fifty, or because the ostensible 
owner is not the real owner. The great agri- 
cultural interest of the United States has always 



92 



demanded the taxing of artificial property, on the 
theory that it would be an injustice to them to 
allow the rich bondholder or mortgagee to escape 
taxation, but in fact such taxation is an injustice to 
the land-holding class itself, upon whom it finally 
falls. There is no article more sensitive to the 
law of supply and demand than money. The in- 
vestor who takes the land-holder's mortgage or the 
corporation's bond, will pay a higher price for an 
untaxed evidence of debt and a lower price if it is 
taxed, so that the difference will always fall on 
the debtor, who is the user and so to speak the 
consumer. 

The problem of equal taxation is one of the 
most complex of questions, but like all problems 
it can best be solved by going to first principles 
and recognizing these facts : 

1. That everything of integral value in the 
world is material, visible and tangible, and only 
things of integral value can be protected and 
should be taxed. 

2. That the user of a thing must pay for its 
use. 

3. That if he be not the real owner in whole 
or in part, he may make any contract with his 
co-owner which is mutually agreeable to them, as 
to the use of the thing and the payment of taxes. 

Governments can only protect visible and 
material things. For of what avail would be 



93 



the bond or the mortgage or the stock certificate, 
or any evidence of debt, if the property which it 
represents is unprotected by the State, and its 
possession not guaranteed to the user by the 
law of the land ? The protection of the piece of 
paper which is the evidence of debt, the artificial 
property, is no protection, if the real property 
which it represents be unprotected. 

That class of citizens who compose our farmers 
and farm laborers have, as they ought to have, by 
numbers and usefulness in the community, an 
influence in all legislation. And that influence 
has been almost invariably exercised in the direc- 
tion of taxing personal, or as it is here defined 
artificial property. 

Their argument is that since real property can 
not escape taxation neither shall artificial, for all 
taxation must be equal ; and the rich bondholder 
shall not live in our community with the protec- 
tion of our government, unless he pays as we do 
for its support. Now the answer to this is, that 
a holder of artificial property, even if untaxed, 
does pay and must pay to the State, in exactly the 
same proportion with the holder of real property. 
To take the original example of the farm ; A, the 
borrower, and B, the lender, made their bargain, 
and both being satisfied it is assumed to be fair 
and equal. The question of taxation was a part 
of that bargain and is settled by it, at least so 
13 



94 



far as the parties are concerned. How is it as 
to the benefit and protection that they receive 
from the State, and their obligation to the State 
in return? 

A, the holder of the farm, pays all the tax and 
receives the use of all the farm, its profits and its 
pleasures. B receives a piece of paper called a 
mortgage and an income of so many dollars. Now 
what is the use of this piece of paper? Can he 
grow crops upon it ? Can he erect upon it a roof 
to shelter him ? Will he hear the birds sing upon 
it, or see the flowers bloom ? Is there any use or 
any pleasure in it such as that which A has in his 
farm ? It does represent a sum of money each 
year, but money has no value except in exchange. 
A man cannot eat money, nor drink, nor wear it. 
He may and does exchange it for real things such 
as have integral value ; and he can use this income 
in so far as he can exchange it for such real things 
and no further. 

If the rich bondholder exchanges his coupons 
for a yacht, or a horse, or a house, or a picture ; on 
each of these articles he must pay taxes, and so it 
is of every conceivable thing which his income will 
enable him to acquire and enjoy ; thus in the end 
each party pays taxes upon exactly the same thing, 
namely, the thing or things which he holds and 
uses, and he should be made to pay on nothing^ 
more. 



95 

The withdrawal of all such artificial property 
as is now taxed, from the taxable basis, and the 
necessary increase of taxation on real property 
that w^ould follow, (unless high license would fill 
the gap as it does in Philadelphia,) would cause 
an apparent hardship at the outset ; but in fact 
the result would be that taxation would be exactly 
equal ; no man paying on more or less than he 
uses and receives protection for, and that no taxa- 
ble property could be concealed. 

And the borrower would demand and receive 
with his loan, such benefit as he would be entitled 
to have in the bargain by reason of the certainty 
of exemption of artificial property, and the cer- 
tainty of taxation on real property, meaning the 
earth and everything material, visible and tangible 
upon it, the only true basis of taxation. 

Things ought to be taxed, not persons ; and 
things ought to be taxed equally. Our present 
law makes the one hundredth part of a Colorado 
mine taxable in Maryland, if owned by a Mary- 
lander in the shape of stock, but exempts the 
whole mine if he owns it outright. It allows him 
to own an entire mortgage for $500,000 free of 
taxation, but would tax him on a bond representing 
$1,000 of the same mortgage. There is no equality 
in this law, and no justice.^ 

^This address was delivered on the 3d of February, 1891, when mort- 
gages were exempt from taxation. 



96 



It is founded on the legal fiction about personal 
property. Is it surprising that persons who own 
property outside of this State brought here for 
taxation in this way, find other legal fictions svhich 
protect it ? The people who really suffer from this 
injustice are the widows and orphans who cannot 
protect themselves. Their estates are in the courts, 
and that means that they must pay to this State 
and city one-half of their income as taxes, and 
uj^on property which has already paid its taxes, either 
to this State, or the State which protects it. Here 
is an illustration of the dictum of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, " That the power to 
tax involves the power to destroy." 

The practical side of this question has been 
so fully presented to you by Mr. William A. 
Hammond in his admirable address of last month, 
that I can add nothing to what he has said on 
this subject, except to say that I have personally 
met every winter for many years past, persons of 
more or less means who came to this city with 
the purpose of settling here. Not one of them 
is here now. A few months' residence is always 
enough to teach them that this city will fine 
them one-half of their income if they stay here. 
A few weeks ago I met a gentleman who told 
me that he had come back to this, the home of 
his youth, to live, but he had just found out 
that as ail of his property was in stocks and 



97 



bonds, he must go to Washington, as he could 
not afford to live here. And I know of a number 
of Baltimore fortunes that are now being spent 
away from Maryland, not because the owners do 
not love Baltimore, but because they do not love 
it enough to pay one-half of their incomes for 
the privilege of breathing its air, and they are 
not willing to lie to the tax-gatherer. 

This is unsurpassed in the United States as a 
residential city, but the present tax law stands 
as a warning to capital to keep away from Balti- 
more, and purely as a matter of expediency and 
good business it would be to the benefit of the 
city to repeal it ; knock down the Chinese wall 
we have built around us, and invite the men to 
come to us who bring with them the life blood 
of trade, the vitalizing force which makes labor 
prosperous. 

Your vice-president, in an address which every 
taxpayer ought to read, tells us that in Phila- 
delphia the total assessed value of personal 
property is three million dollars and in Balti- 
more it is sixty -three millions. This means total 
exemption of artificial property as I have called 
it, in Philadelphia, for the furniture of houses, 
horses, carriages and other visible and tangible 
personal property there must be worth more than 
three million dollars. 

A tax law based upon the theory that only 



98 

visible, material and tangible things can be pro- 
tected by a government, and therefore constitute 
the only true basis of taxation, seems to me to 
mean certainty, equality and justice. And even 
if no other State has adopted this theory, that 
is no argument against it. The same objection 
could have been made to Lord Baltimore's im- 
mortal proclamation about religious liberty. 



AN HONEST TAX LAW. 

NO TAXATION WITHOUT PROTECTION 



An Address Delivered Before the Tax- 
payers' Association of Baltimore 
City, on Tuesday, December 
6th, 1892. 



THE late address of His Excellency Governor 
Brown, calls the attention of the people of 
Maryland, to the most important public 
question which they have to consider, and I am 
glad to see that it has excited so much interest 
in the community. 

Our tax laws, heretofore framed in accordance 
with the obsolete and misleading doctrines of the 
15th article of our declaration of rights, have had 
but one object. That object was to tax every 
conceivable thing that could by any possibility be 
reached, without any regard to justice or expedi- 
ency. The last bill of 1890, which the governor 

99 



100 



most properly refused to sign, provided, in addi- 
tion, inquisitorial and oppressive methods of 
assessment and collection, which would scarcely 
have been tolerated in Asia, and would never have 
been submitted to by the people of this State. 
Turgot said that proper taxation was " plucking 
the goose without making him scream," but the 
framers of our tax laws have generally gone 
simply on the principle of plucking every feather 
that the goose has on his back, w^hether he screams 
or not. 

What the people of Maryland need and must 
have is a system of taxation which shall be certain, 
equal and just, which recognises the fact that 
protection and taxation are co-relative ; that all 
property which the State protects ought to pay for 
that protection, and on the other hand that the 
State ought not to attempt to tax property which 
it does not protect. Our forefathers separated 
from England because taxation without represen- 
tation was unfair. In the same degree taxation 
without protection is dishonest, and we want an 
honest tax law. 

We all know that as the State is bound to pro- 
tect the person and property of its citizens, she 
must in some form receive from them the means 
with which to do so. 

And as the City of Baltimore and different 
parts of the State have different interests, it may be 



101 



necessary to apply home rule principles and allow 
each section, as far as possible, to regulate its own 
taxation in its own interest. For there is nothing- 
sentimental about taxation. Public spirit, whether 
in the form of philanthropy or patriotism, may 
induce the good citizen to give his wealth, or even 
his life, for the public good. But the tax question 
is pure business, so much protection for so much 
money, and every man wants to make the best 
bargain he can for himself in this, just as he would 
in any other business transaction, without losing- 
sight of honesty and fairness. 

As everv citizen in the community is entitled to 
equal protection as to his person, every citizen 
should pay an equal tax for such protection, which 
would be a poll tax. But it is very different with 
property. There is inequality in its value, in the 
amount of protection given it, and in the cost to 
the State of affording that protection. 

And the honest tax law must recognize the 
fact, that the protection of the person is a benefit 
conferred equally on the whole community, and 
that property ought only to pay where protected, 
and pay then in proportion to its value. 

A great part of the public expenditure is caused 
by providing- public benefits in which every man, 
woman and child in the community, high or low, 
rich or poor, share, or have the right to share, 
in exactly equal proportions. The courts of justice, 
14 



102 



the militia and the police are maintained and paid 
to give equal protection to each and every indi- 
vidual in the community. The public schools are 
for the education of all children in the district, 
without any regard to their social status or the 
amount of taxes paid by their parents. 

The streets, the roads, the bridges, the parks, 
the public squares are common property. 

The street lights, gas and electric, like the sun 
" shine for all." 

JSTow, all these things cost money, everybody 
enjoys them and everybody needs them. Who 
ought to pay for them? The logical answer is 
that everybody ought to pay for them, but the 
Fifteenth Article of the bill of rights says we 
cannot have a poll tax, and our present tax law 
provides that property to the extent of $100 is 
exempt from taxation, so that the whole burden 
of providing these expensive and necessary benefits 
for all classes, falls on that class of citizens who 
own property worth more than $100. 

In foreign cities this inequality is in great part 
neutralized by indirect taxation, which falls on 
the entire population. The French system called 
" octroi " gives to every city a custom house of 
its own, which collects a tax or duty on every 
article entering the city, and the consumer in this 
manner is made to pay on every article of food 
and every necessary of life, no matter how poor 



103 



he may be, for the seller, of course, includes the 
*' octroi " in his selling price. 

So the United States, by its tariff, collects indi- 
rect taxes from the poorest citizen in the com- 
munity on whatever imported articles he consumes, 
as well as such native productions as whiskey, 
tobacco, &c., subject to internal revenue, thus 
collecting from the w^hole country the enormous 
amount needed for the expenses of the Federal 
Government. 

There is no $100 exemption in the scheme of 
indirect taxation. 

But the class who own property to the extent 
of $100, or less, are not the only citizens who 
can enjoy all these public benefits without having 
to pay for them. The skilled mechanic, the pro- 
fessional man, indeed, every worker who mixes 
brains with his labor, finds his market and makes 
his income because he lives in a city or country 
which has all these marks of civilization, but he 
does not, of course, pay taxes on his brainwork 
or handiwork, and he will oppose any law which 
taxes income, because under our present law^ he 
can be taxed only on what he saves and invests, 
not on what he earns and spends. And if he 
chooses to live rich and die poor, (which is said 
to be a characteristic of the profession to which 
I belong) he may earn a good income, spend it, 
and never see the face of a tax-gatherer, although 



104 

he enjoys to the fullest extent all the benefits 
and privileges of State and municipal government. 

In considering the making of a tax law from a 
practical standpoint, about the first thing necessary, 
is to frame it in such a shape that it will suit 
the voters. The proposed constitutional amend- 
ment repealing the Fifteenth Article of the bill 
of rights, failed to get the popular endorsement 
at the polls last autumn, because the large class 
who fear an income tax voted against it, and the 
larger class, who own no property, or property 
worth less than $100, was apathetic, feeling no 
interest in the question. Citizens who own prop- 
erty worth over |100, and who pay all the taxes 
that support the State and city, were generally 
in favor of it. Now, what does this property 
owner get from the State, which every other 
citizen not a property holder does not get? Why 
should he pay for all the benefits which are 
shared equally by the whole community, unless 
a fair reason can be shown to single out one 
class and put all the burden of taxation upon 
it, and exempt all other classes because they have 
been less fortunate or less thrifty? 

And the answer is, all individuals in the com- 
munity are protected and benefited equally as 
persons, and should pay equally as persons ; but 
property should be taxed for the reason that the 
man who owns it and enjoys it, does so because 



105 



government gives its special protection, and such 
an owner to that extent receives special and extra 
benefits from government beyond the protection 
of the person, which the man who owns no prop- 
erty does not receive. And he ought to pay for 
it according to the value of the property protected. 
If Carnegie, Phipps & Co. own a mill which some- 
times costs the State of Pennsylvania $21,000 a 
day to protect, they ought to pay to the State of 
Pennsylvania taxes on the value of the mill, and 
if one of their workman owns a house worth $500 
he ought to pay taxes on its value. This is justice 
and equality. A State which gives protection to 
property worth $5,000,000 is entitled to receive 
from ihat j^roperfy ten thousand times the tax 
which it should receive from the ^yq hundred 
dollar house, and all property ought to pay to 
the State which protects it in proportion to its 
value, and bear the full burden of taxation. 

Indirect taxation, such as the French "octroi" 
or the United States tariff would be impracticable 
in this State, and in the highest degree unpopular. 
It would not take the voters long to perceive that 
they were being taxed for the same benefits, which 
the State had heretofore always furnished without 
calling on them to pay anything. 

An income tax would be very unpopular with 
the large wage-earning, salaried and professional 
classes, and from one point of view would be very 



106 

impolitic. A considerable class in the city and 
State, which includes many of the most prosperous 
and useful of our citizens, receives income earned 
from property located in and protected and taxed 
by other States. To tax them on income derived 
from such property would be double taxation, and 
would operate against the city and State in many 
cases to the extent of causing such income to be 
spent in other States, where our own people would 
derive no benefit from it. Every cent of income 
earned outside of Maryland and spent in Mary- 
land is that much clear gain to the State, and 
our tax system should encourage such income to 
come to us, not drive it away. 

The great cities of this country and of Europe, 
have been largely built up by attracting as resi- 
dents, individuals whose income is derived from 
property located all over the world. The city 
enjoying the benefit of the income spent among 
her own citizens, which is earned from property 
which she is under no obligation to protect. A 
striking example was before our eyes at Home- 
stead, when the State of Pennsylvania, at an 
enormous cost which her taxpayers must provide 
for, was obliged to protect a property, the income 
of which is being spent in Scotland, a country 
which does not and will not spend a cent to protect 
Mr. Carnegie's mills, while receiving all the benefit 
of his large expenditure. 



107 

The enormous value of land in the City of New- 
York, is caused in great part because she attracts 
such a large number of wealthy men, whose prop- 
erty is located in, and protected by, other States 
or countries, but whose income goes to swell the 
prosperity of that city, and the same is true of the 
city of Washington, and of the great capitals of 
the world. 

But capitalists are not attracted to cities whose 
system of taxation is unfair or oppressive. And 
in these days, when a fortune can be flashed in a 
few seconds from one country to another by electric 
wires under the sea, they can transfer their money 
or stock or bonds, where and when they please, 
and will ahvays do so when they believe it is to 
their interest. The mobility of this class of wealth 
has always prevented, and will always prevent its 
being the subject of taxation except to a limited 
extent. Every holder of a mortgage, a bond, or 
a share of stock knows that the property which it 
represents has already paid its taxes, and that to 
tax him on the piece of paper which he holds, is 
double taxation and dishonest taxation. With 
equal justice a piece of land could be taxed, and 
the piece of paper called a deed, which represents 
the owner's interest in it be taxed also. 

No man will submit to double taxation if he can 
avoid it. And all attempts to tax this representa- 
tive or artificial property, will result in failure and 



108 



driving away of capital, and should forna no part 
of any honest tax law. 

Our present bill of rights forbids a poll tax or 
an inconie tax, and if it did not the popular vote 
would defeat at the polls any law enacting them. 
And we have no means of enforcing an indirect 
tax such as an " octroi," for our taxation must be 
direct taxation. 

Where then shall we look for the necessary 
funds to carry on our city and State government ? 

To my mind the answer seems to be, lay the tax 
upon the land, and every other form of visible 
material and tangible property, houses, furniture, 
horses, vehicles, pictures, everything which has a 
real material existence within the State and city. 
This is what the State protects, and except the 
persons of the citizen it is all that it can protect. 

What the State protects must pay for that pro- 
tection, and no honest citizen will object to this 
form of taxation. 

If we take this solid basis of taxation ; property 
which can not be concealed, the value of which is 
easily fixed, and the means of collection of the 
taxes certain and easy, the writer believes that we 
will come very near to the best solution of the 
problem. Minor questions, such as taxes on goods 
in transit, licenses to particular trades, &c., will, 
of course, arise and have to be settled. But the 
three requisites which Adam Smith declared to be 



109 



necessary for an honest tax law, certainty, equality 
and justice, are to be found in a law declaring the 
true basis of taxation to be realty and chattels, the 
earth, and everything upon it visible, material, and 
tangible. 



15 



THE FIFTEENTH ARTICLE OF 
THE BILL OF RIGHTS. 

THE STUMBLING BLOCK. 



An Open Lettee to the Baltimore Sun, 
7th of October, 1893. 



IJN" the discussion in the late tax convention, 
the extremists advocating the Hayes bill, 
(including one enthusiastic delegate who de- 
clared that the people of Maryland would have 
that bill even if they had to get it by bayonets) 
laid great stress on the antiquity, as well as the 
justice and wisdom, of the fifteenth article of the 
Bill of Rights. 

They declared it to be the work of our revolu- 
tionary forefathers, and, after living under it all 
these years since 1776, it had stood the test of 
time, and it was useless for us of to-day to attempt 
to change our organic law by attacking this vener- 
able doctrine. 
110 



Ill 



It was also stated that the theory of taxation 
which it proclaims, was taken from the teachings 
of the great political economist, Adam Smith, in 
his work on " The Wealth of Nations," which is 
certainly respectable authority on taxation. 

At this time, when gentlemen who intend to go 
to the Legislature, are informing themselves as to 
the great questions concerning which they will be 
called upon to legislate, it seems appropriate to 
call public attention to this fifteenth article and 
see what it is and what it teaches. 

In the first place it is not the doctrine announced 
in the bill of rights of 1776. 

That article reads as follows : " That the levying 
of taxes by the poll is grievous and oppressive and 
ought to be abolished ; that paupers are not to be 
assessed for the support of government, but every 
other person in the State ought to contribute his 
proportion of public taxes for the support of 
government according to his actual worth in real 
or personal property within the State ; ^ yet fines, 
duties or taxes may properly and justly be imposed 
or laid with a political view for the good govern- 
ment and benefit of the community." 

Here is a rule for taxation which seems fair 
enough. It says that excepting paupers, every 
other person in the State ought to pay taxes, 

^ Italics on this page are the writer's. 



112 



according to his actual worth in real or personal 
property ^ within the State. 

JN^ow mark the difference between this article 
and article 15 of the present Bill of Rights, for 
which we are indebted to the convention of 1851. 
It reads : 

" That the levying of taxes by the poll is 
grievous and oppressive and ought to be pro- 
hibited ; that paupers ought not to be assessed for 
the support of the government but every person in 
the State, or person holding property therein,^ ought 
to contribute his proportion of public taxes for the 
support of the government according to his actual 
worth in real or personal property ; yet fines, 
duties or taxes may properly or justly be imposed 
or laid with a political view for the good govern- 
ment and benefit of the community." 

Thus the gentlemen who composed the conven- 
tion of 1851 by adding to the article of 1776 the 
words " or person holding property therein " and 
by suppressing the words " within the State " have 
succeeded in transforming the reasonable rule of 
1776 into the unreasonable, impracticable and 
illogical article (15) of our present Bill of Bights. 

The insertion of the words "or person holding 
property therein " makes every man who buys a 
piece of property in the State of Maryland owe 
taxes to the State on all property real or personal, 

' Italics on this page are the writer' s^. 



113 



that he may own anywhere in the world, even 
if he never has, and never intends to put his 
foot within the State. So that if we could induce 
Mr. Astor or Mr. Vanderbilt to buy a few acres 
of land here, the State of Maryland would be 
entitled to collect taxes on all the property that 
they own everywhere in the world. The State 
would probably have some trouble in collecting 
these taxes from these gentlemen, but this article 
15 says that she is entitled to them, for did not 
the convention of 1851. after full debate expressly 
eliminate the words, "within the State," which, in 
the article of 1776, qualified the real and personal 
property on which a man ought to pay taxes. 

Again, the suppression of these words makes 
every dweller in Maryland liable to pay taxes 
on all property that he may own anywhere in 
the world ; that is, a citizen of Baltimore who owns 
a house in Philadelphia, or a stock farm in South 
America or Australia, must pay taxes to Mary- 
land upon those properties. It is no defense to 
say that taxes have already been paid on them 
to the State or county in which they are situated, 
for did not the convention of 1851 say that it is 
not enough to pay only on property within the 
State, and in its wisdom strike out the words 
*' within the State," so that it should apply to 
property everywhere. The theory that a Maryland 
man ought to pay taxes to Maryland on a farm 



114 

in South Dakota which has already paid its taxes 
to South Dakota, seems very extravagant to the 
average citizen and taxpayer ; but one of the 
extremists in the tax convention, speaking in 
favor of rigorous taxation, stated that the Mary- 
land owner ought to be willing to pay such taxes 
on his Dakota farm to Maryland, for the privilege 
of living in Maryland. This was said, not jok- 
ingly, but in all seriousness, in a speech made by 
a gentleman of education and intelligence. 

The Bill of Rights under which we lived from 
1776 to 1851 recognized the principle that there 
should be no taxation without protection, and as 
the State could only protect property within its 
borders, only the property '' within the State '^ 
should pay taxes. 

The Bill of Rights of 1851, affirmed by the 
conventions of 1864 and 1867, sets up just the 
contrary doctrine. It declares that every man 
who lives in Maryland, and every man who owns 
property in this State, whether he lives here or 
not, must pay taxes to the State on all the prop- 
erty he owns, whether within or without the State^ 
thus directly reversing the doctrine of 1776 that 
taxation and protection are co-relative. 

There was a protracted debate in the conven- 
tion of 1851 over the suppression of these words 
*' within the State," but in the vote the majority 
decided that Maryland needed money and this 



115 

was the best way to get it. It is practically an 
income tax on all income derived from property, 
but not on income derived from profit or wages. 
Adam Smith's doctrine is that all revenue is 
derived from three sources — rent, profit and wages 
— and the subjects of every State ought to con- 
tribute towards the support of the government in 
proportion to the revenue which they respectively 
enjoy under the protection of the State. This is 
certainly not the doctrine of our fifteenth article. 

So, to sum up : It is not the doctrine of Adam 
Smith. It is not the doctrine of our revolutionary 
forefathers. 

It dates from 1851, not from 1776. Its wisdom 
and justice can only be understood by persons who 
think that a citizen of Maryland owning a Dakota 
farm, ought to pay taxes on it in both states, and 
that if Mr. Yanderbilt buys a farm in Maryland, 
he ought to pay to Maryland, taxes on all the 
property he owns all over the world. 

Finally, if the next legislature passes a tax law, 
they cannot take this fifteenth article for their 
guide, but on the contrary will have to ignore its 
provisions entirely, just as every Legislature that 
has passed a tax law since 1851, including the 
Hayes bill, has been obliged to do, because no 
logical or consistent law can be passed under it. 
Our present law, for instance, provides that if a 
Maryland man owns the whole Fifth Avenue 



116 



Hotel in JSTew York city, and holds a piece of 
paper called a deed here as evidence of his title, 
he pays no taxes to Maryland on that property, 
but if he owns one tenth of the same hotel and 
holds here as evidence of title, a piece of paper 
called a stock certificate he must pay taxes on it 
here. Of course, neither the whole hotel nor the 
one-tenth of it ought to escape taxation in Mary- 
land, if our law conformed to the constitutional 
provision of article 15. 

It is a legislative monstrosity, unsound in theory 
and impossible in practice, and ought to be* 
abolished. 



HOME RULE IN TAXATION. 

EVERY TAXING DISTRICT TO REGULATE 
ITS OWN TAXATION. 



An Open Letter to the Baltimore American, 
18th of November, 1893. 



DISCUSSIONS of the assessment question are 
beginning, as a contribution to open the 
general debate, and Kichard M. McSherry, 
Esq., of this city, writes as follows to The American^ 
taking for his text, " Home Rule in Taxation." 

Our present system of taxation in Maryland 
provides a uniform rate of 171 cents on each $100 
worth of assessable property for the support of the 
state, which we call the state tax. 

But it gives to each county and each municipal 
corporation the right to ^^ its own tax rate, so that 
local taxation varies in proportion to the expenses 
of carrying on local government. This system is 
just and logical. All parts of the State are equally 
16 117 



118 



benefited by state government, and ought to pay 
equally for those benefits. But it would not only 
be unjust, but impossible, to make the citizens of 
one county pay, even in part, for the local expenses 
and improvements in another county controlled by 
another board of county commissioners. 

If, for example, the representatives of the City 
of Baltimore in the Legislature, advocated the 
passage of a general law, fixing one tax rate for 
both state and local taxation, the members from 
the counties would, of course, refuse to listen to so 
outrageous an attempt to make them pay a propor- 
tion of the expenses of the municipal government 
of Baltimore. 

To this extent we have always had home rule in 
Maryland. Every County and municipal corpora- 
tion has the right of self-government : each decides 
what its own expenditures shall be, and fixes its 
own rate of taxation ; thus, in 1892 the local rate 
varied from $1.55 per $100 in Baltimore City to 
50c. per $100 in Carroll county. 

This is good common sense, and good Democratic 
doctrine. If the people of Carroll county chose to 
say that they want to spend 50c. per $100 worth of 
property, to provide for their county government 
and county improvements, it is their business, and 
nobody else's. It is their money that is being 
spent, and it is no concern of the City of Baltimore, 
nor of any other county whether they are spending 



119 



too much or too little. And, of course, the same 
is true of every city and county in the state. 

In other words, Maryland is now, and always 
has been divided into fixed and designated taxing 
districts, each controlling its local taxation. As 
was said by our Court of Appeals in the decision 
in the case of Daly vs. Morgan, 69 Maryland, p. 468, 
" The responsibility for establishing such taxing- 
districts rests upon the law-making power, and the 
principle of equality is fully gratified by making- 
local taxation equal and uniform as to all property 
within the limits of the taxing district. Equality 
and uniformity as between different taxing districts 
is not required in local taxation." 

While these taxing districts have full authority 
as to fixing their tax rate, regulating their own 
expenditures, and the right to assess property on 
their own valuation, they have not by law, the 
right to designate what property shall be taxed, 
and what property shall be exempted. And that 
is the one right wanting to give each taxing 
district perfect home rule. 

This is what the people want : absolute control 
of local affairs, and surely, if they have the right 
to say what valuation shall be put upon the prop- 
erty and what rate shall be paid on that valuation, 
there can be no reason w^hy they should not have 
also the right to say what property should be 
assessed. This doctrine of home rule is so intrin- 



120 

sically fair, so absolutely reasonable, that it is 
difficult to see what argument can be produced 
against it. 

Always bearing in mind that assessment and 
levy for state purposes remain uniform, what 
possible difference can it make to any one taxing 
district in the state, in what manner, or on what 
property, any other district raises its local taxes ? 
What would it matter to Wicomico county if 
Alleghany county exempted coal mines from tax- 
ation ? What does it matter to St. Mary's county 
that Baltimore exempts manufacturing plants ? 
How is Harford concerned in local taxation in 
Dorchester or vice versa? What earthly reason 
can there be why each district should not have full 
power to regulate its own affairs and make its own 
assessment ? 

The writer has never yet heard a single argu- 
ment advanced against the justice and fairness of 
this doctrine, and agrees with Mr. Alfred S. INTiles, 
who, in his excellent paper on this subject, read 
about one year ago, before the Taxpayers' Associ- 
ation, said : "I am a home-ruler in tax matters ; 
not because I can see weightier arguments on this 
side than on the other, but because there seems to 
me to be no other side." The state of Maryland, 
for its area, is remarkably diversified in soil, 
climate, products, industries and interests. And 
there seems to be an equal diversity among our 



121 

people as to their views concerning taxation. 
There are some who believe that if a Marylancler 
owns real estate outside of Mar3^1and, he ought to 
pay taxes on it to Maryland as well as to the state 
where it is located. And there are some who con- 
sider this theory absurd. 

There are some who think that mortgages 
should be taxed, and some who think they should 
be exempt. 

Our law provides that if a man owns a lien 
on property in Maryland, and holds a piece of 
paper — called a mortgage — as evidence of title 
thereof, he pays no taxes on it.^ But if he 
owns one-tenth of the same lien, and holds a 
piece of paper — called a bond — as evidence thereof, 
he must pay taxes. 

It provides that the owner of property outside 
of Maryland pays no taxes on it if his title is 
evidenced by a deed, but pays full Maryland taxes 
on it if his title is evidenced by a stock certificate. 
Some consider that this mode of taxation is reason- 
able, and some say that it is unreasonable. There 
are advocates for the exemption of manufacturing 
plants, and others w^ho believe such an exemption 
to be a fraud on taxpayers. Some hold that only 
visible, material and tangible things ought to be 
taxed, and some, on the contrary, think that 

^This was written before the passage of the Act of 1896. 



122 

nothing which produces income or represents 
property ought to escape. 

Where views so diametrically opposed come 
into conflict, it seems difficult, if not impossible, 
to arrive at a basis of taxation to which a majority 
will agree. But there is a method by which all 
may be satisfied, and that is to let the General 
Assembly continue to legislate for state taxation 
both as to basis of assessment and rate, and to 
give to each taxing district the right to arrange 
the local taxation in accordance with what it con- 
ceives to be its own best interest in all respects. 
The cities and the counties differ radically in this 
respect. These different opinions are generally 
sectional, the agricultural districts taking one 
view, and the manufacturing and industrial dis- 
tricts another. And there would probably be 
little difficulty in arriving at a consensus of 
opinion in each district. 

Of course, every sensible and reasonable change 
which is proposed in our system of taxation, is 
likely to conflict with the letter of the fifteenth 
article of the Bill of Bights, which has disfigured 
our constitution since 1851, when the constitu- 
tional convention of that year reversed the reason- 
able doctrine of the Constitution of 1776. This 
is to be treated not as an argument against home 
rule, but an obstruction to it, which may be 
removed as so many other obstructions raised 



123 

by this same article have been removed, by our 
court of appeals. 

'No provision is made in this article permitting 
exemptions, yet the Court has repeatedly held 
that the legislature can exempt whatever property 
it pleases. It sustained the act of assembly of 
1888, chapter 98, which gave to the inhabitants 
of two wards of Baltimore City the right to pay 
taxes, not upon " their actual worth in real or 
personal property," but upon a valuation and 
rate not to be changed for eleven years, and 
that, the valuation and rate of Baltimore county, 
not Baltimore city, of which they were citi- 
zens. Is it not difficult to distinguish this from 
home rule? 

The right of the legislature to delegate the tax- 
ing power has never been disputed. As it had 
the power to fix an arbitrary rate in the Twenty- 
first and Twenty-second wards, (in conflict with 
the letter of the fifteenth article), it has the right 
to delegate that power to Baltimore city, and 
would have equally the right to delegate the same 
power to every taxing district in Maryland. 

In the single-tax, or Hyattsville case, the Court 
says : 

"We are not to be understood as denying to 
the legislature the power when state policy and 
considerations beneficial to the public justify it, to 
exempt, within reasonable limits some species of 



124 



property from taxation. A long-continued prac- 
tice, nearly contemporaneous in its origin with 
the adoption of the constitution itself, and many 
adjudged and carefully considered cases decided 
by this Court abundantly support that power." 
If the legislature has the right to exempt some 
species of property within reasonable limits, it 
has the right to delegate that power to the taxing- 
districts. 

The only question to be decided is, what are 
"reasonable limits." In the Hyattsvdlle case the 
Court decided that to exempt all classes of property, 
with the single exception of land, was unreason- 
able, and declared the act of the legislature uncon- 
stitutional. We may fairly then suppose, that if 
the legislature sees fit to pass an act delegating 
to the different taxing districts in the state its 
sovereign power for local taxation, that the Court 
of Appeals would uphold such powers when exer- 
cised " within reasonable limits." It is impossible 
to give a strict construction to the fifteenth article 
of the Bill of Rights. In fact, the more liberally 
the Courts construe it, the nearer they come to 
common sense. It ought to be abolished ; and 
with its abolition would disappear the only serious 
obstacle to home rule in taxation. 

The whole theory of our government is based 
upon bringing government as close to the people 
as possible. We believe that Americans know how 



125 



to govern themselves, and we believe that each 
section of Maryland knows its own interests and 
the best way to protect them, and ought to be 
allowed full control of its local taxation so long as 
it does not fail in its paramount duty to the State. 
Give us home rule ! 



17 



THE PASSION PLAY AT 
OBER AMMERGAU. 



A Lecture Delivered at the Academy of 
Music, Baltimore, on the 16th of Decem- 
ber, 1890, FOR THE Benefit of the 
Society of St. Vincent de Paul. 



Your Eminence^ Ladies and Gentlemen : ^ 

1^ August last it was my privilege to be present 
at a representation of the Passion Play, at 
Ober Ammergau in the Bavarian Tyrol, and 
I appear before you this evening to give you some 
account of that wonderful performance. 

You have all heard of it, and know what it is. 
Many of you have seen it and these I am sure will 
agree with me that as a spectacle it is unique in 
the world, a thing once seen never to be forgotten. 

^ The lecturer was introduced by Cardinal Gibbons. 

127 



128 

Its majesty, simplicity and beauty appeal alike to 
the heart and the imagination. The critical spec- 
tator, who regards it merely as an exhibition of 
dramatic art, sees it here in its highest form, the 
art of concealing art. The devout Christian sees 
more, he is carried back two thousand years to the 
hills and valleys of Judea, and sees enacted before 
his very eyes the passion of our Lord, as though 
he were a dweller in Jerusalem in the first century, 
instead of being a prosaic American citizen of the 
nineteenth. 

To Catholics who have been from their childhood 
taught the devotion called the way of the cross, and 
to whom the fourteen pictures which hang on the 
walls of every Catholic church in illustration of it 
are familiar objects, I cannot better explain this 
effect, than to say that if by some miracle, the 
figures in each picture should start from their 
frames replete with life and motion, speech and 
action, and enact before your eyes the scene depicted 
on the canvas, then you would see the Passion Play. 

And here I would say at once that I have never 
seen any person who has been present at a perform- 
ance of this play, who found anything in it irreverent 
or unseemly. I heard during the summer many 
discussions on this subject. Among the great 
crowd of tourists and sight-seers with whom I was 
necessarily in daily contact, being myself one of 
them, the play was a constant topic of conversation. 



129 

Many good people declared that their sensibilities 
would be shocked, by the sight of a man attempt- 
ing to personify our Lord, and I know of several 
cases where parties separated for this reason, some 
going to Ober Ammergau while the rest waited at 
Munich or elsewhere. 

My own feelings were not so delicate. Accus- 
tomed as we all are, to seeing every part of the life 
and passion of our Lord portrayed in painting or 
in sculpture, I could see no more irreverence in the 
man Joseph Mayr representing in his own person 
the figure of our Lord, than in the man Joseph 
Mayr representing in wood-carving the figure of 
our Lord, which in his trade as a woodcarver is 
his daily occupation. 

I saw in Dresden the painting of the Madonna 
di San Sisto whose sweet face seems to shine out 
from heaven itself, and I do not believe that the 
great Raphael painted this almost inspired picture 
in a more reverent spirit, than that with which 
Rosa Lang, the burgomaster's daughter, perso- 
nates the Blessed Virgin upon the stage of Ober 
Ammergau. 

There was a certain fitness and propriety about 
these simple village folk enacting all the characters 
of the sacred story. They are the peasants and 
laborers and artificers of the Bavarian village, 
just as the men and women of the gospel were of 
Nazareth and Bethlehem. It was the pleasure of 



130 

our Lord to appear upon earth in the body of a 
village carpenter, to outward seeming just such a 
one as the woodcarver of Ober Ammergau. The 
Roman soldier of the play, had been in the army 
of the Kaiser, and might have to be again. The 
little barefoot children running about the stage in 
the procession scenes, were just such little village 
babies, as no doubt were attracted by the hosannas 
and waving palms of the crowds in the streets of 
Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday two thousand 
years ago. 

The important parts, such as Caiaphas, Annas, 
Herod and Pilate, representing high priests and 
rulers, are taken by the leading men of the village, 
the burgomaster and such like, men accustomed to 
authority, and they fill their parts with the dignity 
and grace that comes from extreme simplicity. 

In fact, simplicity is the distinguishing charac- 
teristic of the whole performance. The simple, 
direct language of the scripture is closely, and in 
some cases literally, followed. There is no by- 
play, no acting at the audience, no attempt to 
make a theatrical efi'ect. During the entire per- 
formance, I never saw an actor on the stage, from 
the greatest to the smallest, show in any way, 
that he was aware of the existence of the audience 
at all. 

Amalia Lang, who took the part of the Blessed 
Virgin in 1850, went once to Munich, and took 



131 



lessons from one of the masters of the histrionic 
art, for whom Munich has long been famous, but 
on her return it was found that so far from im- 
proving her performance, the graces of the stage 
player had robbed her acting of the dignity and 
simplicity essential to the part. Anything not 
absolutely simple was seen at once by the assem- 
bled villagers to be inappropriate, and the Fraulein 
was obliged to discard her Munich instructions, 
and return to the village tradition, before she was 
allowed to act. 

The good Father Daisenberger of whom I shall 
presently speak, delivered a sermon to the actors 
of 1870 at the final rehearsal on Whit Monday of 
that year, in which he says : 

" It is not our aim to shine in the art of acting, that would 
be presumptuous and ridiculous in simple country people; but it 
must be the earnest desire of each one to try and represent 
worthily this most holy mystery. Each one who takes the least 
part of this work is a necessary link in the great chain, let him 
therefore endeavor to fulfil his task to the best of his ability, and 
thus contribute to the success of the whole." 

And as far as I am able to judge from what I 
saw, I believe that all the players were strictly 
following their pastor's admonition. They were 
trying to represent worthily this most holy mys- 
tery, and they were not trying to shine in the art 
of acting. 

But in one detail of the art of acting tliey did 
shine, the art of elocution. I was seated in the 



132 

middle of the covered seats, in the rear part of 
the auditorium, and so clear and perfect was 
their enunciation and delivery, that I do not 
think I missed a word, although the language 
spoken was German which I understood but im- 
perfectly. Consider what voices these must have 
been to have been so heard by an audience of 
from four to six thousand people, and in the 
open air. 

The dresses were rich, appropriate and pictur- 
esque, and remarkably fresh and clean. As it 
was the month of August when I saw them, and 
the play had been going on since May, they 
must have been constantly renew^ed, as the actors 
are all exposed to the weather, and it rains nearly 
every day. 

The scenery and stage appliances were of the 
highest order, and there was a remarkable smooth- 
ness about all the details. In fact, an American 
theatrical manager told me on the evening after 
the play, that he had never in his life seen better 
stage business than was displayed in the handling 
of the large crowds on the stage, which sometimes, 
as in the first scene, was composed of as many 
as five hundred persons. 

The village contains about twelve hundred 
inhabitants, and has a very clean and prosperous 
appearance. The streets are irregular, and wind 
about without apparently any particular plan, 



133 



except that they all lead to the church. The 
houses are all substantial looking, many of them 
ornamented on their outward walls with large 
frescoes of biblical scenes, and every one has a 
cross on it, and generally a crucifix. 

It is evident that materialism and agnosticism 
have no place in this community. That which 
the agnostics and others call superstition, and 
w^hich Catholics regard as simple faith, reigns 
here supreme. At all the cross roads you will 
see a huge crucifix, and every passer-by takes 
ofi* his hat, and makes the sign of the cross in 
passing it. When the Angelus bell rings, all 
hats are off, and it is no uncommon sight to see 
a whole parish of the neighboring country, mak- 
ing a pilgrimage on foot to the Passion Play ; 
the parish priest and a cross bearer at the head. 
And they will all kneel down in the road, and 
recite the rosary before a wayside crucifix ; indeed, 
many of the peasants on entering the theatre, 
kneel down and cross themselves as they would 
on entering a church. 

It is a beautiful valley, watered by the lovely 
clear Ammer, a mountain torrent, which they call a 
river, and we could call a creek. Completely closed 
in by mountains, it is to this isolation that has been 
generally ascribed the simplicity of the people. And 
as for faith : if outward and visible signs betoken 
that inward and spiritual grace, it is the land of faith. 
18 



134 

Immediately over the village rises sheer two 
thousand feet the dome-shaped mountain called 
the Kofel. It is surmounted by an iron cross 
sixty feet high. The cross was formerly of wood, 
and tradition had it that when the Kofel cross 
fell, the villagers would be absolved from the vow 
made two hundred and fifty years ago. It was 
blown down in the winter of 1889-90, and the 
present iron cross put up in its place. But the 
Passion Play goes on. 

The villagers live under the shadow of this cross, 
and when they have been asked, as they often have, 
to give their play at the great expositions of the 
world, at Vienna, Paris and even in the United 
States, they have answered that they would do it, 
only on the condition that the Kofel spitze with its 
guarding cross be taken with them.^ 

To their credit be it spoken, they have never 
listened to any of the numerous tempting offers 
that have been made them to play for money. It 
is to them the Passion Play to be played at Ober 
Ammergau, every ten years in the fulfilment of 
their vow, a religious ceremony^ not a theatrical 
representation. They would not profane it by 
representing it anywhere else, or for money. 

^A statement having appeared in several European and American news- 
papers that the Ammergauer players would give the Passion Play at the 
Centennial Exposition in Chicago, Joseph Mayr wrote an indignant denial 
and published it in the German and Bavarian papers with a request that 
American papers would copy. 



135 

In 1880 the receipts were about equivalent to 
185,000 of our dollars, of which |20,000 went for 
dresses and scenery, $30,000 was divided among 
the actors and employees, and the balance was put 
in a charitable fund to last for the next ten years. 
Joseph Mayr, who was of course the highest paid, 
got $300, not as much as he would have earned at 
his trade in the same time. He was asked by a 
visitor how he could be satisfied to take so arduous 
a part for this small sum, and he answered at once, 
" Think of the honor of it." 

Remember, ladies and gentlemen, that in that 
country, and among Joseph Mayr's people, a man 
can rise to no higher honor, than that of appearing 
as the Christus. 

Centuries of the Passion Play have given this 
village a biblical atmosphere. It is noticeable 
everywhere, in the looks and manners of the 
people, in their language, in their very beards and 
hair, and it is impossible to believe, that it has not 
penetrated their hearts and influenced their lives. 
They begin to go on the stage as children in their 
mother's arms, and when they have passed child- 
hood, and appear as young men and women, in 
any part, great or small, the first requisite is, that 
they shall be of good moral life, communicants, 
practical Catholics. 

There are in all some five hundred persons of all 
ages, who appear on the stage, but there are only 



136 



one hundred and four speaking parts, fifteen of 
which are for women. These are all chosen by a 
committee of the principal villagers, with the 
burgomaster and parish priest at their head, and 
the meetings of this committee begin by hearing 
mass. The actors of this year, 1890, were chosen 
in Christmas week 1889, and immediately re- 
hearsals began, and continued in public and 
private until Whit Monday, when all the actors 
attend mass, receive the holy communion, and 
hold the final dress rehearsal. 

I have already quoted something of Father 
Daisenberger's Whit Monday sermon, to the 
players of 1870. I will quote a little more, to 
show you how deeply the spirit of religion is 
interwoven with this performance. Here is his 
opening : 

" Dear Friends : — You are called upon this day to fulfill a 
great and holy vow, you will as it were in some measure take 
part in the Apostolic office. 

" From the day of Pentecost, the Apostles went into all lands 
to preach Jesus the Crucified — His doctrines and His deeds — 
His resurrection and His glorification — to show to men how 
ancient prophecies, how the types of the Old Testament were 
fulfilled in Him. 

" We are not now to go forth into the world to make known 
the Crucified, but thousands during this year will come to us, 
and ours will be the privilege to represent before them what the 
apostles preached. If we work together with holy zeal, worthily 
to represent these mysteries, then we may hope that with God's 
grace great blessings may ensue. Many pious Christians, touched 
by the representation of their Saviour's death, will return home 
edified and strengthened in their faith and love, and with renewed 



■ 



137 



resolutions to continue His faithful disciples. Many of the luke- 
warm and frivolous, unable to throw off the solemn impressions 
they have received, will in future show that the seeds of a more 
Christian life were sown here. And it may be that the sight of 
the Redeemer's great love for mankind, and of His bitter suffer- 
ings for their sins, may draw tears of repentance from the eyes of 
sinners, and these tears, aided by God's good spirit, may be the 
beginning of a sincere conversion, and this gazing on the Passion 
may be the way by which the Good Shepherd seeks and finds. 
His lost sheep. 

" But, dear friends, we can only hope for God's blessing if we 
undertake our work with pure motives and holy zeal, and not with 
selfish and vainglorious motives. If with the latter, God will 
look down upon us and upon our work with displeasure ; we shall 
be misusing and dishonoring the most sacred things, we shall reap 
to ourselves instead of honor, blame, instead of gain, most bitter 
loss. 

" You, who have merely to do mechanical labors, perform them 
with industry and careful exactness, for altho' not seen of man, 
you have in the eyes of God an important service to render, not 
less so than those who have to act parts apparently more import- 
ant. You who have to represent persons who hated and perse- 
cuted the beloved Saviour, try and render those persons well, 
bringing out their wickedness, hatefulness, and hypocrisy, so as 
to fill the spectator with abhorrence for their shameful deeds. 
You will, therefore, contribute towards making the innocence, 
gentleness and elevated dignity of the Redeemer appear in still 
clearer light. It is the shadows of a picture that make the light 
prominent. 

" In times of need our forefathers made the solemn vow to 
represent the Passion, with the pious intention of promoting the 
honor of God, and the remembrance of the dear Redeemer, who 
gave Himself up to death for our sake, and for the edification 
of our brother men. 

" With this devout feeling and with this alone, let us this year 
fulfill the vow of our ancestors." 

In the year 1633, about the time that Lord 
Baltimore was gathering together the settlers, 



138 



who were to sail in the "Ark" and the "Dove," 
and found this good old State of Maryland, a 
great pestilence broke out in all the district sur- 
rounding Ober Ammergau. It was so fatal that 
it was feared that every one would die ; whole 
families were swept away. In the village of 
Kohlgrub, nine miles away, only two married 
couples were left alive. The Ammergau people 
enforced a strict quarantine around their village, 
but one Caspar Schuchler who was working in a 
neighboring town where the plague prevailed, 
managed to evade their vigilance and enter Ober 
Ammergau, where his wife and children were 
living. He brought the plague with him. In 
two days he was dead, and in the following 
month, eighty-four of the villagers died. Then 
the villagers assembled, and solemnly vowed that 
if 6-od would spare them^ they would perform the 
Passion Play every ten years, as an act of Thanks- 
giving. According to the tradition not a single 
death occurred from the plague after the vow 
was taken, and in 1634, the year of the settlement 
of Maryland, the play was first performed. 

In 1680, the decadal period was chosen, and with 
some interruption, as in the war of 1870, when 
various of the actors were drafted into the army, it 
has been performed every tenth year up to this year 
of 1890, which is the last performance of this cen- 
tury. The next, if there be a next, will be in 1900. 



139 

Religious plays, known as Moralities, Mysteries, 
Miracle Plays and Passion Plays, of which this 
may be considered the unique survival, were very 
common at that time, and were an influence in the 
teaching of religion little inferior to the pulpit. 
The bible stories were put upon the stage for the 
instruction of the people, just as pictures were hung 
in the churches, and crucifixes erected in the public 
places. 

To the unlearned, as indeed to many of the 
learned, the impression created by a well-acted 
dramatic representation is more vivid and life-like 
than that which comes from the brush of the 
painter, or the words of the preacher, and to this 
end many of these plays were produced in all 
parts of the Christian world, and especially in 
Germany. 

But in the course of time they, in many cases, 
degenerated into mere burlesques, and all sorts of 
fantastic and extravagant scenes were introduced, 
" to please the ears of the groundlings," but to the 
scandal of the religious and serious-minded spec- 
tators. Indeed, in this very play at Ober Ammer- 
gau, when Judas hung himself, a stuffed figure fell 
and burst open, and a legion of devils rushed upon 
the body and tore open the entrails which were 
made of sausages, and they devoured them before 
the audience. Lucifer, Prince of Hell, was an 
important performer, and took a great part in the 



140 



play. Of course I speak of the past, no such buf- 
foonery would be tolerated now for an instant. 

Finally, these representations began to give so 
much scandal, that they were prohibited by the 
authorities everywhere, and it is a clear proof that 
the play at Ammergau must always have been freer 
from this objection than any other, that it still 
exists. 

In 1790, all similar plays were forbidden in 
Bavaria, partly on the ground of their interfering 
with industry, and partly for moral and religious 
reasons, but the villagers of Ober Ammergau 
obtained the special permission of the elector Karl 
Theodor to continue their play. In 1810 they 
were again prohibited from performing, and a 
deputation from the village was obliged to go to 
Munich to obtain the royal sanction, the ecclesias- 
tical authorities being finally satisfied that it should 
be given again. 

The royal sanction has to be obtained every ten 
years, as a matter of course before each perform- 
ance, and there are not a few people who believe 
that it will not be given in the year 1900. It is 
even said that many of the villagers themselves are 
opposed to giving another performance in 1900, as 
they fear that it has become to too many of the 
visitors a mere spectacle, devoid of the sacred 
character which thev consider essential to its 
existence. 



141 



I am bound to say that I saw nothing myself to 
justify any such idea. There were certainly a great 
many persons in the audience, perhaps one-third, 
who were mere tourists and sight-seers, like myself, 
but by far the great majority of those present were 
country people, religious to the core, who were there 
for a veritable pilgrimage, and who had walked 
many a weary mile to get there, old men and young, 
grey-haired women and young girls. Crowds and 
crowds of such, I passed on the road dressed in 
their picturesque Tyrolese costume, the women in 
most cases barefoot, but carrying their shoes in their 
hands, or slung over their shoulders, ready to put 
on when they reached the town. These are the 
people for whom this play is an instruction in 
religion and even a form of devotion. People 
who take no shame in kneeling down under the 
open sky, at the side of a crowded road, and 
saying their prayers aloud before a wayside 
crucifix. 

It is an old proverb in the valley of the Ammer, 
" that the way to the representation of the Passion 
Play should be a way of penance," and to many of 
these it is so, a long weary journey on foot, which 
not all can accomplish, as witness the tablet to the 
memory of the pilgrim Aloysius Pfausler, who 
died from apoplexy on the steep road of Mount 
Ettal, brought on by his over exertion in climbing 
that mountain. 
19 



142 



Formerly, the journey from Munich to Ober 
Ammergau was a very trying one, to-day it is easy 
enough. The railway now passes the village of 
Oberau, only seven miles away, and although the 
road over Mount Ettal is now a perfectly good one 
and a splendid piece of engineering, it takes nearly 
three hours to drive that short distance, as the 
horses have to go at a walk. From the junction 
of the foot path and the carriage road on the 
Ettaler Berg, we drove through an endless pro- 
cession of these peasant pilgrims on foot, with 
their peculiar Tyrolese hats adorned with feathers 
which men and women both wear, alpenstocks in 
their hands and all in their Sunday best. 

But with all this vast crowd there was nothing 
of what we should call side shows, such as are an 
invariable accessory of great crowds in every other 
country. There were a few booths for the sale of 
food and tobacco, and in the village photographs 
and woodcarving, but it was plain that no one 
regarded this as a festive gathering, or a county 
fair, and there was something of solemnity in the 
very air of the place, as we passed the old Monas- 
tery of Ettal and under the great cross on the 
Kofel. 

I arrived about three in the afternoon, and was 
quartered in the house of Johann Zwink, who takes 
the part of Judas, but I was there offered the 
somewhat unusual privilege of a room to myself 



143 

in the house of a neighbor Johann Schauer, and 
gladly accepted it. 

My host was a typical villager, a large man 
about six feet high, with hair down to his shoulders 
and a long beard, well built and hardy in appear- 
ance, with a good* honest face, and that extremely 
kindly and courteous manner which is a charac-. 
teristic of the village. The room itself was small 
but exquisitely clean, the only ornament being 
the inevitable crucifix on the wall, and a small 
holy water fount. I may say here that I found 
all charges reasonable enough, and could not 
help thinking that if any village of 1200 inhabi- 
tants in the United States, had ten thousand 
strangers a week to entertain, they would not 
neglect the opportunity of over-charging, as these 
people did. 

The streets and the meadows around the town 
were absolutely swarming with people, during the 
afternoon and night, but everything was in the 
highest degree quiet and orderly, except when 
the droves of cows came in from pasturage and 
insisted on their right of way in the streets, to 
the discomfiture of many of the lady tourists. 
And there never was such a place for cows, the 
1400 people in the valley own 600 cows. 

In the morning at about five o'clock I made 
my way to the village church, an edifice as large 
as Loyola College church, which even at that hour 



144 



was full of worshippers. Every one of the five 
altars was occupied steadily from three o'clock in 
the morning until seven and a half o'clock by 
priests saying mass, and although I went back 
to the church three several times, it was always 
crowded, and crowded with worshippers, not sight- 
seers. 

At six o'clock a gun is fired to arouse the 
visitors, and the fire brigade of the village, headed 
by the band, marches through the streets as a 
welcome. By half-past seven the narrow roads 
leading to the theatre are swarming with people, 
and by eight o'clock when the second gun is fired, 
every spectator is in his seat. 

The theatre of this year is the most elaborate 
that has ever been built. It was made under 
the supervision of the director of the Munich 
Opera House, and will hold, it is said, 6000 per- 
sons. The seats are very uncomfortable, being 
simply boards with a rail to lean against, and 
half of them are open to the sky. The admittance 
costs from 25 cents for the uncovered seats near 
the stage, up to $2.50 for the best of the covered 
seats. Up to 1830 the play was always given in 
the village church yard, which is also the ceme- 
tery, but since then a new theatre has been built 
every ten years, on the site of the present one, a 
meadow near the town. 

The cast of the principal characters this year is : 



145 

Christus for the 3rd time, Joseph Mayr, Wood- 
carver ; Johannes for the 1st time, Peter Rendl, 
Woodcarver ; Petrus for the 4th time, Jakob Hett, 
Woodcarver ; Maria for the 1st time, Rosa Lang, 
Burgomaster's daughter ; Magdalena for the 1st 
time, Amalia Deschler, Woodcarver's daughter ; 
Joseph of Arimathea for the 2nd time, Martin 
Oppenrider, Woodcarver ; Caiaphas for the 2nd 
time, Johann Lang, Burgomaster ; Annas for the 
1st time, Franz Retz, Taik)r ; Judas for the 1st 
time, Johann Zvvink, Painter ; Pilate for the 2nd 
time, Thomas Rendl, Overseer for the Lady von 
Hillern ; Herod for the 1st time, Johann Diemer, 
Retired Woodcarver. 

Joseph Mayk 

is a man of tall stature, a little over six feet 
in height, with long black hair flowing to his 
shoulders. He is about fifty years old, having 
filled the same part in 1871 and 1880, this being 
his third appearance, and no painter could present 
so complete a realization of our ideal as this 
dramatic delineator — it has been the study of his 
life. Of noble bearing and presence and extremely 
graceful in every movement, he never shows the 
least touch of affectation or self-consciousness. We 
can see that he forgets Mmself entirely, and with 
humble sincerity of heart endeavors to present a 
living picture of the Master. 



146 

He is a woodcarver by trade, a man of un- 
blemished reputation, honored by his neighbors 
and a good father of a family, and of course^ as all 
the actors must he^ a practical Catholic. 

Some critics consider that his face is rather too 
heavy, not spiritual enough.^ 

Maeia. 

Rosa Lang, who impersonates the Blessed Virgin 
for the first time, is a young woman not over 
twenty, who is the daughter of the burgomaster. 
The tradition of Ober Ammergau is, that the 
Blessed Virgin was always young, and no married 
woman is ever allowed to take the part. She has 
a sweet sympathetic face, and a very melodious 
voice. But none of the female characters have 
long speaking parts. They show their art and 
training by their dignified and graceful bearing 
and gesture. 

Judas. 

Johann Zwink plays this part for the first time. 
He is about forty years old, and in 1871 and 1880 
took the part of St. John. He has bright red hair 
and a very florid complexion. He is a painter by 
trade, and by many persons is considered the best 
actor on the stage. 

^ In the winter of 1894-5 while woodcutting, a heavy log fell upon him 
breaking his leg. This accident will, I suppose, prevent him from ever 
appearing again upon the stage. 



147 



Caiaphas. 

Johann Lang, the burgomaster of the village, 
admirably fills this difficult part. The magnificent 
costume of a Jewish High Priest, which he wears, 
is strictly correct in the historical sense as are 
all the dresses of the play, most of them being 
copied from the pictures of the old masters. He 
has a splendid voice and large and imposing 
figure, and in impersonating the proud and arro- 
gant high priest, even in the most exciting- 
scenes preserves his stately demeanor. He per- 
forms this part for the third time. 

Pontius Pilate. 

Thomas Rendl, overseer, is in this part the very 
type of a Roman aristocrat. When our Lord is 
brought before him as governor of Judea, he 
at first shows that the matter is too small for 
his attention. He can not be troubled with so 
insignificant an affair, as the disposal of a poor 
insane peasant from Galilee, but when he hears 
that it is the death penalty that is demanded, 
his Roman sense of justice revolts and he ex- 
claims, "I find in him no fault at all ; " and 
he deals with the priests and people with an air 
of magnificent scorn, very natural to a Roman 
general the governor of a distant and unim- 
portant province like Judea. 



148 



Herod 

is personated by Johann Diemer, a retired wood- 
carver. He gives us an excellent rendering of this 
weak and frivolous ruler, who had come to Jeru- 
salem on a visit of pleasure, and whose final 
decision was " I am weary and will not concern 
myself about the affair," although satisfied that 
the sentence to death was a piece of gross injustice. 

It is no doubt due to the fact, that so many of 
the principal characters are taken by men who are 
woodcarvers, that the tableaux and all the scenic 
parts of the play are so admirably given. The 
music is solemn but very pleasing, somewhat like 
the music of a mass. It was written by Rochus 
Dedler, who was born in 1779, became the school- 
master of Ober Ammergau in 1802 and died twenty 
years later. The musical director this year is the 
village schoolmaster, Joseph Gruber. The general 
manager is the burgomaster, Johann Lang, who 
seems to be the head man of the place in all 
respects. 

The words of the play were, it is believed, origi- 
nally written by the monks of the neighboring 
Monastery of Ettal. It was rewritten by one of 
these monks, Dr. Otmar Weis, but it owes its 
present form to Dr. Aloysius Daisenberger, the 
beloved pastor, or Geistlicher Rath, who, from the 
time of his becoming spiritual director of the village. 



149 



in 1845, until his death in 1880, made this play 
the study of his life, and, as it were, became the 
evangelist of Ober Ammergau. 

Canon Farrar, a great Protestant ecclesiastic, 
calls this year's play the " Gospel according to St. 
Daisenberger." He says : 

" His beatification has not been declared at Rome, and his ver- 
sion is not entitled to rank with the canonical scriptures, but 
none the less, generations yet to come may rise up to call him 
blessed, and his version, unauthorized though it be, enables all 
who see it to realize more vividly than ever the human side of the 
martyrdom of Jesus." 

We will suppose the vast audience now in their 
seats, serious and attentive. 

Behind the curtain of the central stage all per- 
sons connected w^ith the performance, more than 
500 in number, are assembled with their pastor 
and on their knees engage in meditation and 
silent prayer to prepare themselves worthily to 
represent " TA^ great sacrifice of Bedemption on 
Golgotha^ or the History of the suffering and death 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the four 
Gospels^ with tableaux rejpresenting scenes from the 
Old Testament ^''^ which is the official name and 
title of the Passion Play. 

Exactly at eight the chorus of Schutzgeister, or 

guardian angels, appear upon the stage. Slowly, 

gracefully, with harmonious motion, these peasant 

angels with the choragus at their head, advance to 

20 



150 



the front and form in a semicircle. Thev are clad in 
long white robes, over which hang graceful mantles 
of brilliant colors, violet, orange, brown, blue, red^ 
crimson and scarlet, richly embroidered with gold. 
They all wear golden crowns with a cross in the 
centre and make a brilliant rainbow of color. 
Fourteen are women, seven soprani and seven 
central ti ; nine are men, five tenors and four 
bassos. The choragus, Jacob Rutz, in a wonder- 
fully pure, clear and powerful voice, begins the 
recitative, and the chorus and the concealed orches- 
tra answer, with the first song descriptive of the 
fall of man and his redemption. The function of 
these Schutzgeister, who occupy the stage for fully 
one-half of the whole play, is to explain in recitative 
and in song, the moral and meaning of each tableau, 
and each act, and it is remarkable how a small 
mountain village can produce such a number of 
sweet, pure and sonorous voices. 

Let it be remembered, that no person can 
appear upon this stage, who is not a native of 
Ober Ammergau. 

The Stage at this opening scene, makes a picture 
never to be erased from the memory of the be- 
holder. It occupies one entire end of the theatre 
and is bare to the sky, except in the centre, where 
an enclosed building in the form of a Grrecian 
temple serves to represent interior scenes and 
tableaux. On each side of this an arch extends- 



151 

to the house of Pilate, on the left, and to the 
house of Annas, on the right. Through these 
arches we see the streets of Jerusalem, and over 
all, as a majestic setting and background, we 
have the grassy slopes of the immemorial hills, 
and the blue vault of heaven. The curtain of 
the central temple divides, half rising, and half 
falling below the stage, and discloses the first 
tableau, and the Schutzgeister retire to the sides 
until the curtain rises again, and so on through 
the play, except during the acts, when they retire 
altogether from the stage. 

The first two tableaux are called the Prologue, 
and form, as the Schutzgeister tell us, the type 
or fundamental idea of the play, which takes the 
Old Testament as the foundation of prophecy 
realized in the New. Every part of the story of 
the passion is illustrated by a tableau from some 
scene in the Old Testament, which prefigures it, 
thus representing the passion on the basis of the 
entire scriptures, as Canon Farrar beautifully 
says : 

" The whole of the Old Testament is thus made 
the massive pedestal of the cross. 

The first tableau represents Adam and Eve clad 
in sheepskins and flying from Eden, while the 
Angel stands on a rock above with a flaming- 
sword, and the serpent is coiled about the tree 
of knowledge of good and evil, with the fruit 



152 



" whose mortal taste brought sin into the world 
and all our woe." The second represents the 
Adoration of the cross, a number of girls and 
little children in adoration before the symbol of 
man's redemption. As the curtain falls we begin 
to see in the streets of Jerusalem crowds of men 
and women, with palms in their hands, singing 
" Hail to Thee, Son of David ! " Gradually they 
approach, the streets filled with children and 
citizens attracted by the noise, and finally, we 
see a young man with long flowing locks and 
the face of an angel, a pilgrim's staff in his 
hand, leading a little ass. It is the beloved 
disciple John. The rider, seated on one side like 
a woman, descends, blessing the people ; and all 
the audience, with a little but very audible gasp 
of emotion, bow their heads as though what they 
saw was reality. By this time the curtain, risen 
again, discloses the temple full of a busy throng, 
chaffering and trading as in a market place. 
Then Christus, speaking the words of the gospel, 
enters the temple, drives them forth, and the 
scene ends in the confusion of their flight. 

The next two scenes of this act are occupied 
by the conspiracies of the priests, who are indig- 
nant at the declaration of Christus, ' that he is 
the son of God,' and the traders, who want revenge 
for being ejected from the temple. They agree 
to go to the Sanhedrim. 



153 

There are no intermissions ; the Schutzgeister 
appear immediately on the stage to explain the 
third tableau, the children of Jacob in the plains 
of Dathan, conspiring to kill Joseph. This pre- 
cedes the second act, all of which is taken up 
by the meeting of the Sanhedrim, where the priest 
Nathanael, and Dathan, the representative of the 
traders expelled from the temple, appear to com- 
plain against " this notorious Jesus of Nazareth^ who 
has to-day blasphemed in the temple^ calling himself 
the Son of God and insulted them all in unheard of 
fashion. ^^ 

The fourth and fifth tableaux, preceding the 
third act, represent the departure of Tobias, and 
the lamenting bride of the Canticles, typical of our 
Lord's departure from Bethany for Jerusalem ; His 
last visit to that beloved village. Here occurs the 
scene where Magdalena, pouring ointment over 
the Saviour's feet, excites the selfish, cold and 
calculating Judas, who complains of the extrava- 
gance of so wasting w^hat could have been sold for 
300 pence. And the act concludes with the touch- 
ing scene of the parting between our Lord and His 
Mother ; the disciples and the people of Bethany 
grouped around and Mary Magdalen a, kneeling 
by the side of the Master. 

The fourth act begins with the tableau of King 
Ahasuerus, repudiating his haughty queen, Vashti, 
and elevating the modest Esther; typical of our 



154 

Lord's rejecting the proud and disdainful Jews, 
and electing for Himself a better and more worthy 
people. The action represents the journey to Jeru- 
salem. Here the character of Judas develops ; 
holding in his hand an empty purse he approaches 
our Saviour and asks what the disciples shall do 
when the Master has left them, and they have no 
means of subsistence. And when they have all 
left Judas remains, having resolved to leave the 
little band of which he was the treasurer. Xow 
appears the trader Dathan, who easily prevails 
upon Judas to betray the Master, and the act ends 
with the scene of the Apostles John and Peter, at 
the house of Mark in Jerusalem, whither they had 
been sent to prepare for the coming of Christ to 
celebrate the last supper. 

The seventh and eighth tableaux foreshadow the 
last supper; the first is the rain of Manna in the 
wilderness, and is, perhaps, the grandest picture in 
the whole play. More than 400 persons are in it, 
150 being children, and although it lasts about three 
minutes, the figures are as motionless as though 
it were a piece of mosaic. The second tableau 
is the return of the spies from the promised land. 

The fifth act is the last supper, an exact repro- 
duction of the picture of Leonardo da Vinci, our 
Lord in the centre. 

The first group on the right of our Lord, are 
John the beloved disciple, Judas and Peter, on 



155 



the extreme right Andrew, James the less and 
Bartholomew. The first group to the left consists 
of James the elder, Thomas and Philip, and next 
to them Matthew, Thaddeus, and Simon. 

x\lmost the exact Gospel language is here repro- 
duced. First comes the washing of the feet, and 
then the inexpressibly touching scene of the first 
communion. Christ breaks the bread and gives a 
portion to each of his disciples saying, " Take, eat, 
this is my body which is given for you ; this do, in 
remembrance of me." To each he places a little 
piece upon the tongue, which each receives and 
instantly and reverently, bows his head in silent 
devotion, exactly in the form which you have all 
seen or participated in, when the holy sacrament, 
in remembrance of the last supper, is given in 
every Catholic church. 

And at this point the audience was a wonderful 
sight to see, remembering that we were not in a 
church but in a theatre, almost every spectator was 
in a devotional attitude, and the song of the angelic 
choir who were singing behind the stage, was 
punctuated by the sobbing of the audience. My 
neighbor on the right was a Western American 
girl, my neighbor on the left was a Hungarian 
parish priest — they were both weeping freely. I 
have never seen either of them before or since, nor 
do I know their names, but in that moment we 
were all in sympathy. 



156 



The tableau of Joseph sold by his brethren pre- 
cedes the sixth act, where Judas goes to the San- 
hedrim and agrees to betray his Master. He tries 
attentively each one of the pieces of silver to see if 
it be genuine, and makes one of the finest dramatic 
scenes of the entire play. 

The seventh act is the garden of Gethsemane 
preceded by two tableaux. Formerly the bloody 
sweat was represented in this scene, but it is now 
omitted. 

After this scene comes the betrayal ; Judas gives 
our Lord the treacherous kiss and the soldiers seize 
him. The rudeness and harshness with which the 
soldiers handle their prisoner is so realistic, that 
the audience begins to murmur and move uneasily 
in their seats. 

At this point there is an intermission of one hour. 
The play began at eight, it rained heavily from 8 
until 11 a. m., two-thirds of the audience being 
exposed to the weather without umbrellas or pro- 
tection of any kind, and yet no person that I saw 
had left his seat. 

From twelve until one, performers and spectators 
obtained refreshments, but the booming of the 
cannon brought every person back to his seat at 
about 1.15 p. m., and the second part of the play 
began, and lasted until half-past five. 

The Schutzgeister again appear, and tell us of 
the tableau of Zedekiah smiting the prophet Micaiah 



157 



on the cheek, which is the type of the scene in the 
eighth act, where oiii^ Lord before Annas, is smitten 
on the cheek by Balbas. 

The ninth act is our Lord before the Sanhedrim, 
sitting as a court with Caiaphas presiding. Nico- 
demus and Joseph of Arimathea, having in the 
previous sitting demanded a fair and legal trials 
witnesses are examined, the laws read and sentence 
of death passed in due form. 

The second scene is the disciples, Peter and John, 
timidly approaching the servants, and endeavoring 
to find out what has been done by the Sanhedrim 
to the beloved Saviour. This is where the cock 
crows and Peter denies his Master. 

The tenth act is the despair of Judas, prefigured 
by the tableau of Cain, a wanderer on earth, with 
the brand of murder on his brow. In the first 
scene Judas rushes into the Sanhedrim, tortured 
by his conscience, and throws the thirty pieces of 
silver down before the priests, cursing them for 
having seduced him to his crime. The second scene 
is Haceldama, the potter's field, where despairing 
and raving he sees a tree, and, with a sudden im- 
pulse, wrenches off his girdle and hangs himself. 
It would be difficult to exaggerate the dramatic 
effect of this scene. The Judas of the play leaves 
on us the impression of a man not wholly bad, as 
witness his repentance and remorse, but cold, cal- 
culating, avaricious and selfish, unable to resist the 
21 



158 



temptation of money. Zwink's rendering of this 
scene was superb. 

The eleventh and twelfth acts represent our Lord 
before Pilate, and afterwards before Herod, who 
concludes the scene by saying: "This man is only 
a fool ; the matter has detained us long enough, 
let us make up for lost time with music and song." 

The thirteenth act begins with the scourging, 
which Pilate had ordered to be done to appease 
the people, and the curtain rises just as it is 
finishing, and the exhausted victim falls senseless 
to the ground. Then picking him up still bound 
and helpless, they put on His shoulders a red robe, 
and in His hands the reed for the sceptre. Here 
begins a scene so brutal in its realism, that the 
audience can scarcely contain themselves ; sobs, 
ejaculations, murmurs of all sorts, are heard all 
over the theatre. The acting is perhaps a little 
too violent, but through it all, though constantly 
struck and pushed off his seat, and falling help- 
lessly, by reason of the cords which bind him, 
Mayr never seems to lose his dignity of demeanor. 

The crowning with thorns is carried out with 
the same brutality. Four soldiers place the crown 
of thorns upon the head, then to press it down 
firmly, they take two sticks, and cross them over 
the crown, and press them down upon the winc- 
ing sufferer, until they break with a cracking 
snap that sends a shudder through the theatre. 



159 

The fourteenth act represents the Jews headed 
by the high priests before the house of Pilate, 
demanding the sentence of death which they 
finally obtain, freeing the hoary old Barabbas, a 
man steeped in crime and who looks his part 
thoroughly. The action in this scene is very 
picturesque and animated, the fickle and shouting 
mob, urged on by the furious priests, and a fine 
point is made when our Lord and the two thieves 
after sentence of death, are delivered over by the 
guards of the temple who are raw recruits, to the 
Roman guard of Pilate who are seasoned veterans. 
The grim centurion in command, lets the crowd 
know at once that these prisoners are in his 
charge, and it will go hard with any man who 
tries to abuse them. 

The tableau of the young Isaac bearing the 
wood up Mount Moriah, which was to be the altar 
on which he would be sacrificed, and two other less 
striking tableaux prefigure the harrowing scene 
of the fifteenth act, which represents our Lord 
bearing His cross to Golgotha. 

From the gateway near Pilate's house, a small 
group emerge in view\ It is the Blessed Virgin, 
the beloved disciple John, Joseph of Arimathea, 
Mary Magdalena and the other holy women. 
They have ventured into Jerusalem to discover 
if they can, what the priests have done to the 
Master. Suddenly they see with alarm, a vast 



160 



crowd approaching, at first a shouting mob, then 
a procession headed by a man on horseback bear- 
ing the Roman standard, " Senatus Populusque 
Romanus ; " then comes the centurion in command 
of his company, and finally the condemned. First, 
"the Man of Sorrows," his face covered with blood, 
from the thorny crown which he still wears, 
staggering under the weight of the heavy cross, 
almost exhausted ; the two thieves with smaller and 
lighter crosses following, the rough executioners 
and the priests urging them on, and all the rabble 
of Jerusalem anxious to see the coming tragedy. 

The Blessed Mother first realizes the dreadful 
reality of what is taking place, and sinks fainting 
into the arms of her faithful friends. 

The Saviour falls and is unable to rise, the 
humane centurion tells the executioners to stop, 
and handing the sufferer a flagon bids him refresh 
himself. Then the carpenter, Simon of Cyrene, 
who is passing by, his basket of tools in his 
hands, takes up the heavy cross, and is rewarded 
by the words, " The blessing of God be upon thee 
and thine." The procession moves on, but not 
fast enough for the priests and executioners, who 
urge the exhausted sufferer, now scarcely able to 
move. The centurion again interposes, " Let the 
man rest, he needeth a short respite before he 
ascends the hill of death." The spectator's heart 
goes out to that centurion. 



161 

The sixteenth act, the Crucifixion, is preceded 
by no tableau. The Schutzgeister appear now in 
solemn black, their rainbow-colored robes dis- 
carded, and as they sing heavy hammer blows 
are heard behind the scenes. The executioners 
are nailing Christ to the cross. 

The curtain ascends, the two thieves are tied, 
not nailed to their crosses, which are already 
erect in position. On the ground with the head 
slightly elevated, is the larger cross to which 
the Saviour is already nailed. The executioner 
nails the inscription " I N R 1 " to the head 
of the ctoss, and he and his mates raise it 
into position. All this is done with an almost 
horrible realism. The closest examination with 
strong opera glasses discloses no stage trick. 
The absolute real appearance before your eyes, 
is that of a human being nailed to a cross, 
the face expressing the extreme of physical 
suffering. 

Every detail of the gospel is strictly carried 
out ; the guards and executioners gambling for 
the garments of the condemned, the priests 
and the mob ridiculing and jeering at the dying 
men, the seven last words of the Saviour, every- 
thing is minute and exact. 

Our friend the centurion orders that the space 
be cleared around the crosses, that the friends 
and relatives of the condemned may approach, 



162 



and they do so. The Saviour's head sinks heavily 
on his breast ; all is over. 

The impenitent thief, the one on the right, is 
a dark- browed young man of remarkable beauty, 
as to features and figure, but with a sullen and 
vicious expression. The penitent thief on the left 
is older, with light hair and beard and a rather 
amiable face. The contrast between the two is thus 
well presented. When the executioners approach 
to kill them, which they do with a huge club, 
jeering at them as they strike, the sad group at 
the foot of the cross w^atch with terror, and when 
having dispatched the two thieves, they approach 
the central cross, the Blessed Virgin throws up 
her hands as though to protect the body from 
this final brutality, and the executioners seeing 
that death has already taken place, give the 
spear thrust in the side to make it a certainty. 

During this scene I can only compare the 
audience, to those, who, around a dying bed wait 
for the dreadful moment when the parting soul 
takes flight. And a great sigh and groan arises 
from every part of the auditorium, as though 
the mimic scene was reality. 

The next scene, the descent from the cross, is 
modeled after the famous picture of Rubens. Two 
ladders are placed against the cross, a short one 
in front on which Joseph of Arimathea ascends, 
with a long roll of linen cloth in his hand. 



163 

Nicodemus ascends the large one at the back, and 
very tenderly removes the crown of thorns. Then 
with a pair of pincers, and apparently with a great 
effort of strength, he pulls the nails deeply im- 
bedded in the wood through the hands, and 
placing the linen cloth under the arms, the body 
is slowly lowered. 

John takes the feet, and Lazarus reaching up 
his arms receives it, the linen is removed, and the 
body is tenderly and reverently born by the four 
men, Mcodemus, Joseph, John and Lazarus, and 
laid with great care upon a white linen cloth, the 
Holy Mother, Mary Magdalena, and the beloved 
disciple John around it, forming the scene which 
so many of the greatest artists of the world, have 
illustrated in painting, or in sculpture, and called 
the Pietd. 

The body is then anointed, it is wrapped in the 
linen cloth, and the four bear it away to the sepul- 
chre, followed by the sorrowing women. 

The seventeenth act is the Resurrection on the 
third morning, the guards in terror at the appa- 
rition. 

The eighteenth act is the Ascension. It is 
Raphael's Vatican picture instinct with life, and 
with the triumphant Hosannas of the Schutz- 
geister resounding through the theatre, the curtain 
falls. 

I have endeavored, ladies and gentlemen, most 



164 

imperfectly I know, to convey to you the pro- 
found impression which this wonderful perform- 
ance made upon me. There are persons who say, 
and no doubt believe, that this is simply a good 
dramatic representation, and the actors are only 
looking like any other actors for the profit that 
it brino's to themselves, and their neiofhborhood. 
To say that they are entirely insensible to this 
consideration, would be to say that they are more 
than mortal. But on the whole I believe that 
these Bavarian village people are fulfilling their 
vow, " soberly, reverently and in the fear of God." 
The human side of the scripture is here brought 
home to every one of us ; to me certainly as it 
never was before. Of the Saviour and the Blessed 
Virgin, I may not speak. All the others were 
men and women like ourselves. 

The hasty old man, Peter, who drew his sword 
to defend his Master and afterwards denied Him. 
The poor wretch Judas easily seduced by money, 
the haughty High Priest Caiaphas, enraged at the 
pretensions of a crazy impostor from Galilee (as 
he believed), the fine Roman governor Pilate, and 
the weak, pleasure-loving Herod, all these are 
types of humanity, who exist to-day as they existed 
two thousand years ago. 

The play is written by Catholics^ and performed 
by communicants in the Catholic church, in an 
intensely Catholic country. But it is intended to 



165 

appeal, and does appeal, to all Christians of all 
denominations. For this storv is the common 
heritage of all Christianity, and the lines dividing 
the denominations, in essentials, thin at the most, 
here fade away and altogether disappear. 

Dean Stanley, Canon Farrar, and many other 
eminent ecclesiastics of the Anglican church, have 
preached and written about this Passion Play, in 
words as laudatory as they were eloquent, and 
with my own eyes I saw Anglican ministers and 
laymen mingling their tears with their Catholic 
brethren, over this mimic representation of the 
great story of the Passion. 

And in conclusion, I will say, that I shall 
always remember this Passion Play, as the greatest 
object lesson of my life, on the greatest theme 
known to the world. 

It is one thing to read, or to hear in a sermon, 
of the crown of thorns, the scourging, and the 
crucifixion. It is another and a very different 
thing, to see a living man, his shrinking body 
apparently quivering under the cuts of the lash, 
sharp thorns driven through his scalp, and finally 
nailed to a piece of wood and dying there. And 
that is what the spectators saw on this stage. 

Never again do I expect to see such an audience. 
From the first, reverential and almost devotional 
in their demeanor, they became in the more sor- 
rowful scenes emotional to a degree that was abso- 
22 



166 

lately painful to witness. The cracking of those 
sticks that pressed down the crown of thorns, sent 
a shudder through the crowd that was like a wave 
of the sea. There was a contagion of religious 
sympathy in the air. Believer or unbeliever — 
Catholic or Protestant — Priest or Layman — no 
man can sit unmoved through this performance \ 
and the Christian spectator realizes, as he never 
did before, what is meant bv the Passion of our 
Lord. 



ADDRESS. 



Delivered at the Presentation^ to the City 

OF Baltimore, of the Monument to 

Christopher Columbus, in Druid 

Hill Park, 12th of 

October, 1892. 



Mr. President and Grentlemen of the Italian Societies: 

THIS beautiful monument which you have 
erected here, has now been formally accepted 
by the chief executive of our city, his honor, 
Mayor Latrobe, who alone has the right to speak 
officially for his fellow citizens. 

But I have been asked, not as occupying any 
official position, but as a private citizen of Balti- 
more, who is also a friend of Italy, to say a few 
words on this occasion. And I assure you that it 
gives me great pleasure to do so. 

An extensive and intimate acquaintance with 
men of your race, in this and in other countries — 

167 



168 



delightful reminiscences of personal sojourn in your 
beautiful land — and a long and active professional 
connection with the representatives of your country ^ 
in the United States (a professional connection 
which, I am proud to say, has been officially and 
most graciously acknowledged by his majesty King 
XJmberto) — all these are considerations which make 
it especially agreeable to me to be present here 
to-day, and to participate in these ceremonies. 

The erection of this monument is the outward 
and visible manifestation of a noble idea. While 
it is a tribute of affection, gratefully tendered by 
you to the home of your adoption, it is also the 
assertion of your claim to share in the glories of 
your mother country, and of your desire to per- 
petuate, in this new land, the story of the glorious 
deeds of the great Italian navigator. 

The boy who goes forth into the world, no matter 
how successful in life, no matter how great and 
powerful he may become, must always bear with 
him the love of his childhood's home. The child 
can never forget his mother. And you Italians of 
Baltimore will be none the less good American 
citizens, because you love your mother Italy, and 
because you glory in her glories, and although 
dwellers in America, you sometimes turn your eyes 
back to that bright land, beautiful from the riviera 
di levante to the riviera di ponente, and say in the 
words of one of your own prose poets : 



169 



" Qual havvi terra che il sole illumine con una luce piu serena 
o che reschaldi con piu dolce tepore." 

"O Italiani, prostratevi, venerate questa sacra terra che vide 
sopra si correre tanti nemici tanti stranieri tanti crudele fazione, e 
tanti guerre combatersi, e tanti incendi, tanti morti, tanti tradi- 
menti cometersi, e pur senipre riraase bella, vagheghiata, desi- 
derata." 

" Ma baciando questa classica terra, cercate in essa con riverenza 
le vestigia che i vostri maggiori v'impresero e seguitele." 

And of these ' i vostri maggiori,' who have left 
their mighty "footprints on the sands of time," not 
upon Italy only, but upon the world, what name is 
greater than that of Christopher Columbus ? 

Here four hundred years after the event, we 
celebrate his great achievement, and we under- 
stand as he never could have understood, the 
magnitude of its results. 

Here, where a few savages roamed in primeval 
forests, has been built up, the greatest, the freest 
aiid the most prosperous of the nations of the 
earth . 

And his was the hand that tore awav the veil 
that concealed America, that hid one-third of the 
world from the other two-thirds. He was the 
high priest who united in indissoluble wedlock, 
the old world and the new, and made of two 
worlds, one. 

Think what it meant to sail upon an unknown 
ocean in quest of an unknown world ! You who 
have crossed the seas in a great ocean steamer, so 
large that she could easily carry all of Columbus^ 



170 

fleet as part of her deck load — with the date of 
your arrival, almost as fixed and certain as the 
date of your departure, — knowing day by day 
exactly your distance from either shore, with every 
risk reduced to a minimum, you still feel in cross- 
ing the Atlantic, that you have incurred risks, 
surmounted obstacles, and have braved the perils 
of the deep. 

Imagine then the little Santa Maria, and Pinta 
and Nina ; cockleshells, mere specks upon the great 
ocean, bound no man knew whither, to arrive no 
man knew when, the crew incredulous of success, 
insubordinate, mutinous, full of terror of the un- 
known dangers before them, dangers all the more 
formidable and fearful because they were unknown. 

And yet from the 3rd of August, to the 12th of 
October, undismayed by danger from within, or 
danger from without, this hero went steadily on 
to that great success, to which his whole life had 
been but a prelude and a preparation. 

To-day the science of navigation is an exact 
science, the skillful navigator can fix the position 
of his ship upon the sea, as accurately as a sur- 
veyor can locate a landmark on the earth. But in 
1492, it was almost too primitive to be called a 
science at all. They understood, it is true, the 
use of the mariner's compass, and the astrolabe, 
but their instruments, like their knowledge, were 
rudimentary, and the sun by day and the stars by 



171 

night, were the guides upon which the mariner 
mainly relied. 

But Columbus had a special star to guide 7^^m, 
not indeed visible to the corporal eye, but more 
certain to lead him to his victory, than any one of 
the great planets that shine in the firmament of 
heaven. The star of 2:enius — the star of destiny — 
the star of faith ; faith which removes mountains, 
faith which makes the things unseen and unknown, 
to the believer, as sure and certain as the seen and 
the known — faith which made Columbus know that 
there was an America to be discovered, and that 
he would discover it. 

During all the weary years, before he found in 
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, 
protectors who would furnish him with the means 
to try his great experiment, buffeted about from 
court to court, sneered at and derided as a mad- 
man with a crazy theory, his faith in the existence 
of an unknown world, buoyed him up, and sus- 
tained him, with that unfaltering trust which is 
the prerogative of true genius. 

As Schiller says in his Columbus poem, " What 
genius promises nature will surely fulfill." A pro- 
found and philosophic thought, upon which Emilio 
Castelar thus comments : 

" When I regard this great achievement, the most living, 
evident, and effulgent lesson that it bears is the triumph of 
faith. To cross the seas of life, naught suffices save the bark 



172 



of faith. In that bark the undoubtiDg Columbus set sail, and 
at the end of his journey found a new world. Had that world 
not existed, God would have created it in the solitude of the 
Atlantic, if for no other end than to reward the faith and con- 
stancy of that great man. America was discovered because 
Columbus had faith ; faith in himself, in his ideal, and in his 
God." 

Italy, from the old Roman times, has been the 
cradle of heroes. In war, in diplomacy, in philoso- 
phy, in the arts and science — in every branch of 
human thought and human action, she has pro- 
duced men, who, in their day have led the world. 

But of all her great children whose names 
are inscribed on the tablets of fame, Christopher 
Columbus is her chiefest and crowning glory. 
His majestic form looms up like a great giant 
marking a new epoch in the world ; — and his 
monument is the Continent of America. 

The two greatest epochs in the history of the 
world, are the foundation of the Christian religion, 
and the discovery of America, and this discoverer 
claimed as his greatest glory to be, what he always 
signed himself, not Spanish Cristobal Colon ; not 
Italian Christoforo Colombo ; but Xto f evens ^ Greek 
and Latin, signifying the Christ bearer, which to 
our continent of America, he truly was. 

The name of his flag-ship, the " Gallego," he 
changed to that of the " Santa Maria," in order 
to place himself under the special protection of the 
Mother of God — the Admiral's flag under which 



173 

he sailed, flying at his mast head, displayed the 
figure of Christ crucified — and his first act upon 
landing on San Salvador, was to erect a cross ; 
and that cross was the beginning of Christianity 
in America. 

For nearly four centuries he has slept with the 
immortals, and we of the United States, are now 
well into the second century of our republic. 

During all our national existence, we have been 
allied to Italy with an unbroken friendship. With 
nations, as with individuals and with families, 
differences must at times occur, dififerences of 
opinion — difl'erences of interest. The world's busi- 
ness can not be carried on, without occasional 
international friction. But, thank Heaven, no ques- 
tion has ever arisen between the Kingdom of Italy 
and the United States of America, which has not 
been fairly, temperately and peacefully settled, 
with honor to both nations, and without in any 
wise impairing their ancient and honorable alli- 
ance. May that alliance remain unbroken forever ! 
May the greatest nation of the new world, which 
the great Genoese discovered, dwell forever in 
peace and amity with the land that gave him 
birth ! 

I congratulate you, gentlemen, on your beautiful 

idea in the erection of this monument, an idea 

which comes appropriately and logically, from the 

children of that land which has for centuries been 

23 



174 



the mother of poetry and of the arts. And I con- 
gratulate you upon the successful result which we 
see before us. 

Here it will stand upon the greensward of this 
noble park, that our children and our children's 
children may know, that the Italians of Baltimore 
love the city of their adoption, and that they have 
given expression to that love in this monument 
chiseled by an Italian sculptor, from Italian 
marble, and erected by Italian hands, in honor of 
the great Italian hero who discovered America. 



ADDRESS. 



At the Banquet of the Catholic Club in 

Honor of the Silver Jubilee of His 

Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, 

19th of October, 1893. 



May it Please Your Eminence : 



M 



Y fellow members of the Catholic Club have 
done me the honor to assign to me, the 
most agreeable office of saying in their 
name, and as their representative, some words of 
greeting and welcome to our distinguished guests ; 
to the gentlemen here present, illustrious in civil 
and political life, to the Reverend, Right Reverend, 
and Most Reverend Fathers of the clergy and 
hierarchy, and especially and principally to the 
guest of the evening, in whose honor we are 
assembled, His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, 
Archbishop of Baltimore. 

175 



176 

We are all Americans, proud of our citizenship 
in the greatest republic the world has ever seen ; 
by tradition, by education, and by conviction, 
believers in a republican form of government, and 
supporters of its institutions. Yet, we are here to 
do honor to a Prince. And we can do so with 
entire consistency, for this Prince of the Church 
is as true an American citizen and as firm a sup- 
porter of republican institutions, as can be found 
within the confines of the United States. 

And the Empire in which he holds that rank is 
one to which the most austere republican can give 
his allegiance as loyally and as logically, as can 
any Royalist or Imperialist, who still believes in 
government by the divine right of Kings, and the 
subjection of the people. 

For, it is an Empire not of this world. JN'o 
legions of armed warriors does it command, to 
enforce its decree or perpetuate its power. JN'o 
revenues does it control to provide for its adminis- 
tration, beyond those which it receives as the free, 
voluntary and filial offerings of its own children. 

It is the empire of the soul : 

" O Rome ! my country, city of the soul, 
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee." 

An Empire holding its sway in the hearts and 
souls of over two hundred millions of mankind ; 
it rules, indeed by Divine Right, and yet of all 



177 

governments known to man, is that one which 
most truly rules by the consent of the governed. 

Nothing human is foreign or alien to it, and no 
geographical lines confine its boundaries. Just as 
in every part of the human body the life-blood 
ebbs and flows through innumerable arteries to 
the heart, the centre and fountain of physical life, 
so in this great body of the Catholic Church, the 
spiritual life-blood ebbs and flows through its 
various arteries, missionaries, priests, bishops, 
archbishops, cardinals ; every part of the world, 
civilized and uncivilized, throbbing and pulsating 
in sympathy and union with the great heart at 
Rome, our Chief Bishop, Leo, by Divine Provi- 
dence, Pope. 

The Church has no army for war, but it has an 
army for peace, oflicered by its clergy, whose 
ministrations, commencing with the baptism of the 
new-born babe, conclude only with the Viaticum 
at the bedside of the parting soul. And in that 
long interval between the cradle and the grave, 
these officers stand always on duty ready to succor 
the weak and to admonish the strong, to advise 
the troubled, to relieve distress, physical, mental, 
or spiritual, and to carry light wherever they find 
darkness. 

Voluntarily abandoning the family tie, the great- 
est of human joys, that they may better and more 
fully devote themselves to the welfare of their 



178 

fellow men, they consecrate their lives to their 
work. And, whether as parish priest, in a fever 
ward, an humble missionary, braving the perils 
of darkest Africa, a Damien, giving up his life 
for loathsome lepers on a Polynesian Island, or 
Pontiff, or Cardinal, rebuking the misdeeds of 
Kings and Emperors, no warrior on the tented 
field ever showed more self-abnegation, more stead- 
fast purpose, or more heroic courage, than each in 
his appointed station, does the Catholic priest. 

In this army has our Cardinal been a valiant 
soldier, and a valiant captain, and can truly say, 
^^ Non sine gloria militavi.^^ 

We Maryland Catholics are proud to claim him 
as one of ourselves, born here in this good old city 
of Baltimore, and State of Maryland, baptized in 
the very Cathedral where he now pontificates, and 
educated at the Maryland colleges of St. Charles, 
and St. Mary's Seminary, here he was ordained 
priest in 1861. 

In seven years of parochial work, it became 
evident that he was destined for larger fields of 
uselulness, and in 1868 he was consecrated Bishop, 
" in partibus infidelium," and Vicar-Apostolic to 
North Carolina, of which auspicious event we are 
now celebrating the jubilee, or twenty-fifth anni- 
versary. 

The State of North Carolina had, at that time, 
a population of one million souls, of whom only 



179 

one thousand were Catholics, scattered over a 
sparsely settled country, with primitive methods 
of locomotion. And the labors of the Yicar-Apos- 
tolic were indeed Apostolic labors. Churches he 
had few. Where he had none, his broad humanity, 
which claimed all men as his brethren, opened for 
him the doors of Protestant chapels, tendered for 
his use by his Protestant friends. For there, as 
everywhere, those not of his own faith, as soon as 
they know him, learn to admire and respect him, 
even as do we, his own people. 

What he did, he did with all his might, and 
when he was transferred to the see of Richmond 
in 1872, he left three times the number of priests 
in North Carolina that he found there in 1868. 

In 1877, upon the death of the Most Reverend 
Archbishop Bailey, to whom he had already been 
appointed coadjutor, he was consecrated Arch- 
bishop of Baltimore, the ninth of that illustrious 
line, ex officio primate of the United States, and 
head of the American hierarchy, which exalted 
position he holds to-day. 

But still greater honors were in store for him. 
Appointed Apostolic Delegate, he presided over 
the great Baltimore council of 1884, and in 1887 
he received from the hands of the Holy Father the 
crowning honor of the red hat of the Cardinalate. 

Thus, in a ministry of twenty-six years, he had 
already attained every ecclesiastical honor and rank 



180 



save one. For to this magnificent list of titles, so 
deservedly won and so nobly worn, only one more 
eould possibly be added. But I, a layman, may 
say no more upon that subject, for in this presence, 
it might be presumption to say what I w^ould like 
to say. It has been often remarked that this glori- 
ous career from Parish Priest to Prince of the 
Church is typically American. But, in fact, the 
great majority of European Cardinals attain their 
rank by precisely the same means, personal merit 
and personal achievement. In this respect the 
Catholic Church is a pure democracy, and in 
the selection of its clergy conforms strictly to the 
democratic rules of equality of opportunity, natural 
selection and the survival of the fittest. 

And, as a logical consequence of this policy, 
having all the world to choose from, her highest 
officers, the members of the Sacred College, consti- 
tute the most distinguished body of men in the 
world. 

Selected from every quarter of the globe, repre- 
senting every race and every form of political 
government, each individual composing it eminent 
for learning and piety, with that mature judgment 
which results only from ripe practical experience 
of men and things, and the administration of large 
affairs, reminded by the very color of their gar- 
ments that they must know no fear in the discharge 
of duty, and be ready, if necessary, to give their 



181 



blood for the Church, they are well named Cardi- 
nal, which word, in its original signification, means 
pivotal, the men upon whom great things hinge, 
and depend. And great matters do hinge and 
depend upon them. With a maximum of seventy, 
but an average number of not over fifty to sixty, 
they compose the August Senate which legislates 
for the spiritual government of the greater part of 
all Christendom, and in human affairs is the 
greatest conservative influence on earth. 

In it the Holy Father can find counselors from 
every clime, in touch and sympathy with every race. 
A Lavigerie to speak for Africa, a Manning for 
England (now both gone to their reward), a 
Hohenlohe, a Furstenburg or a Ledochowski for 
the Grermanic and Slavonic people, a Richard for 
France, a Moran for far-off* x\ustralia, a Logue 
for Ireland, and last, not least, a Gribbons, to speak 
for republican Catholicism, and the rights of the 
Catholic American workingmen. We all know 
how earnest and how successful have been his 
efforts at Rome, to enlist the paternal sympathy 
of the Sovereign Pontiff in the cause of labor, 
and we know that from the date of his installa- 
tion as Cardinal Priest of his titular Church of 
Santa Maria in Trastevere, when he made that 
magnificent address, eloquently and so forcibly 
proclaiming his admiration and loyalty for the 
government of the United States, he has never 
24 



182 

failed to lift his voice in support of our American 
institutions. His public life as parish priest, as 
Vicar, Apostolic in fact, as well as in name, in the 
administration of diocesan and archdiocesan aifairs, 
as bishop and archbishop, as Apostolic Delegate 
and as Prince of the Church, is an open book which 
all may read. And the fierce searchlight of pub- 
licity which turns to follow every movement of 
those high in station, has only served to show him 
more clearly as the ideal laborer in every field to 
which it has pleased the Almighty to call him. 

He teaches us by example, by his deeds as well 
as his words, and long after his earthly voice is 
still, he will continue to teach our children, and 
our children's children, to prize " Our Christian 
Heritage," and cling to the " Faith of our Fathers." 

But we, his neighbors and parishioners, who 
have the privilege of knowing him in private 
life, have learned to regard him not as the great 
ecclesiastical dignitary only, but as friend and 
father. We know his gentle heart, his kindly 
smile, his sympathetic word in time of affliction, 
and in the brief moments when he can lay aside 
the weight of his great office and indulge a little 
in social intercourse, his infrequent visits fall upon 
our houses like a benediction. 

I have no words at my command, venerable 
father, adequately to express the affection and 
reverence which the Catholic Club feels for their 



183 

archbishop, and I can only fulfill the function 
assigned to me by tendering our sincere, heartfelt 
and filial congratulations upon this, your episcopal 
jubilee, the twenty-fifth milestone on this long- 
road of well-accomplished duty. We thank our 
distinguished guests for honoring us with their 
presence this evening We bid them a most cor- 
dial welcome, and we ask them all to join us in 
these congratulations and in wishing a long life of 
prosperity, honor, and continued usefulness to the 
Archbishop of Baltimore, our American Cardinal. 



ADDRESS. 



As President of the Catholic Association, 

AT THE Reception given to the Apostolic 

Delegate, Archbishop Francis Satolli, 

AND Bishop P. J. Donohue, at the 

Academy of Music, Baltimore, 

15th of April, 1894. 



Most Reverend Apostolic Delegate, Bight Reverend 
Bishop Donohue and Fathers of the Clergy ; 
Ladies and Grentlemen: 

THE Catholic Association of Baltimore has 
invited you here this evening to meet dis- 
tinguished guests. You all know these emi- 
nent prelates, who they are, and Avhat they are, 
but many of you, if not most of you, do not know 
what the Catholic Association is. 

As I have at present the honor to be its presid- 
ing officer, and as the Association desires to extend 
its privileges to every young man of good moral 

185 



186 

character who aspires to intellectual development, 
I will explain briefly the scope and purpose of our 
organization. 

It is intended to provide opportunities to our 
young men of acquiring what, for want of a better 
name we will call higher education, — that form of 
instruction that teaches men to think and reason 
for themselves, and thus to digest and utilize the 
general knowledge which they have acquired in 
the schools or in practical life, and make the best 
use of their own brains. 

Many a bright mind has missed its natural 
development, and like the young man of Gray's 
Elegy who " laid his head upon the lap of earth to 
fortune and to fame unknown," has made a failure 
where there should have been success, because of 
the lack of this opportunity, because " Fair science 
to his eyes her ample page, rich with the spoils of 
time, did ne'er unroll." 

The Jesuit Fathers, always in the van of every 
movement for advanced education, have given us 
a local habitation at Loyola College, provided with 
suitable lecture rooms, reading rooms and other 
accessories. But they have done more. They have 
detailed from their own learned Society lecturers 
who give twice a week at night, courses in Ethics, 
Moral Philosophy, Metaphysics and kindred topics. 
There is also a course of languages in the form of 
conversational classes, two nights a week, and 



187 



every member of the Association is entitled to 
take all these courses of instruction for the nomi- 
nal annual subscription of three dollars. 

In addition, we have almost weekly public lec- 
tures by our own members on subjects in which 
they are experts. Thus we have heard, among 
others, an Engineer on Engineering, an Architect 
on Architecture, a ]^atural Scientist on Geology, 
a Journalist on Journalism, an Alienist on Insanity, 
a well known writer of fiction on the life of 
another famous novelist, the Health Commissioner 
on Hygiene, and an Electrical Engineer on Elec- 
tricity. Distinguished travelers have given us the 
results of their labors with practical lessons in 
Geography, and every one of these lectures has been 
an instruction in the form of an entertainment, and 
those present (and we are glad to say that they 
have been fully attended) have carried home from 
each of them some new form of information. 

At the late Catholic Congress in Chicago, a paper 
was read which gave such great offense, that a 
considerable number of the delegates present rose 
from their seats and left the hall upon hearing it. 
The idea that it expressed was that Catholics con- 
fined themselves to the lower walks of life, that as 
a body they lacked education and culture, and 
consequently did not produce, in proportion to 
their numbers, as many distinguished and suc- 
cessful men as did their fellow- citizens of other 



188 



religions. I do not know to what community the 
writer referred, nor on what facts the paper was 
based ; but this I do know, that its statements 
are not true of Maryland When we contemplate 
the long list of illustrious Maryland names from 
Calvert, the statesman of colonial days who first 
proclaimed the glorious doctrine of religious liberty, 
on to Charles Carroll, the statesman of the Revo- 
lutionary epoch who signed the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and from him on to Roger B. Taney, 
Chief Justice of the United States at the time of 
the Civil War, one of the greatest Jurists of this 
country, and from him on to His Eminence, Cardi- 
nal Gribbons, the great ecclesiastic of to-day, — 
these, only the bright, particular stars in a shining 
galaxy of good and great Catholic names, — I say 
with this record, we Maryland Catholics can never 
admit that from the founding of the colony to the 
present time, we have not been fully the peers of 
any of our fellow-citizens morally, socially, politi- 
cally, or intellectually, and we mean to remain so 
and we hope to see this Association a potent factor 
to that end. 

These are restless days. The crank roams abroad 
in the land, — the man who has never been taught 
to think or is mentally incapable of thinking, who 
resists and defies all authority, divine and human, 
and disseminates as far as he can his pernicious 
doctrines. 



189 

It is, therefore, especially an appropriate time for 
us to study all these social and ethical questions, 
and brighten up our intellectual armor to combat 
that form of thought which culminates in Atheism, 
the defiance of Divine Authority, and in Anarchy, 
the defiance of human authority ; and we may rest 
assured that no man can truly understand Logic 
and Moral Philosophy, and be either Atheist or 
Anarchist. 

The Catholic iVssociation now offers these edu- 
cational advantages to every young man of our 
community, and because it is a Catliolic Association 
in all the meanings of the word, the invitation is 
not restricted to those of our own faith, and every 
person who desires to join us will please give his 
name to the Secretary. 

To-night the Association begins a new feature, 
its social side, in inviting you to meet the two 
illustrious prelates here present. 

To you, Most Reverend Apostolic Delegate, we 
bid a respectful and cordial welcome. Any dele- 
gate bearing credentials from the Holy Father, 
our Chief Bishop Leo, by Divine Providence Pope, 
must necessarily be welcome to American Catho- 
lics, but your Grace has upon us a special claim ; 
the claim of your Americanism. In matters con- 
cerning the government and discipline of Mother 
Church, we of the laity do not offer opinions, but, 
after hearing your eloquent voice at Chicago, when 
2b 



190 



you said that the American citizen should reverence 
the Constitution of the United States as his guide, 
in the social and political order, as he would hi& 
Bible in the moral and spiritual order, and that 
with the Bible in one hand and the Constitution in 
the other, he was equipped successfully to confront 
the enemies both of society and of religion, we 
knew that those words, if they came from Italian 
lips, came froni an American heart. " Sermon e 
Italico sed corde Americano." 

Your Grrace, with your intelligent knowledge of 
our history, will not have failed to note what a 
strong castle of refuge that great instrument has^ 
been for the American people and how it has stood 
the test of time. We are accustomed to speak of 
ourselves as a new country, and in a sense that is^ 
true, but as a government we are not at all new ; 
we are among the oldest of Christian and civilized 
governments. 

America, as a geographical expression, is new 
as compared to Europe, and the United States of 
America, as a geographical expression, is new as- 
compared to France, or Germany, or Italy, or Spain,, 
or Austria; nevertheless, the Republic under which 
we live is an older government than any of them. 
The Republic of France, the Empire of Germany,, 
and the Kingdom of Italy, all date from 1870. 
The present Kingdom of Spain dates from Decem- 
ber 31, 1874, after two years of an unsuccessful 



191 

republic. The Empire of Austria began its exist- 
ence as an empire in 1804, about which time nearly 
every nation of Europe changed its government 
Siiid its rulers in the general upheaval of the 
JN'apoleonic wars. Our government began on the. 
4th of March, 1789, with the adoption of the 
"Constitution, — that rock upon which our Fathers 
built our national house, against which the attacks 
of time have not, as yet, prevailed. Danger there 
has been, danger from without and much greater 
danger from within, but the republic still stands 
to-day in the 106th year of its existence, unchanged 
in form and in substance, in the ascendant, not in 
the descendant, — the best government the world 
has ever seen. 

And all the world has been invited to participate 
in the blessings which we enjoy. From the first 
the founders of the republic held out their hospi- 
table hands, and bade the weary and heavy laden 
of all nations to come to them, to come not as 
sojourners and strangers, but as brethren and as 
citizens. And they have come. This great nation 
has 65,000,000 of people, by birth or descent 
springing from all the nations of Europe, but here 
they are all equally Americans, just as the 
American Catholic Church, though composed of 
all nationalities, is the one American Church. 

To this church your Grace bears your great 
commission emanating from the highest spiritual 



192 

authority on earth, — an authority nowhere more 
fully recognized than it is by American Catholics. 

Your Grace has greatly honored us by your 
presence here this evening, and this Association, 
in thanking you for the favor which you have 
conferred on us, bids you a most hearty welcome. 

To you, Right Reverend Bishop, we tender our 
sincere congratulations. The extension of your 
labors to a larger field of usefulness by your 
elevation to the Episcopate, is the logical outcome 
of the learning, piety and devotion to duty dis- 
played in the priesthood. But what we have to 
say to Bishop Donahue, is not what we have to 
say to Father Donahue, the parish priest, who has 
baptized our children and buried our dead, and 
has stood with us at the bedside of our beloved, 
watching for the passing of the parting soul. To 
him we can feel only the sadness of Farewell and 
the regret at the loss of our friend and pastor, 
while to the Bishop we offer our hearty congratu- 
lations and bid him Grod-speed, in his new high 
office. 



ADDRESS. 



Delivered at the Triennial Meeting of 

THE Society of the Cincinnati, in 

Boston, 14th of June, 1893. 



Mr. Chairman and Brethren of ihe Cincinnati : 

SIXCE the meeting in New York in 1875, my 
State Society of Maryland has honored me 
with continuous election, as a delegate to the 
meetino's of the General Society, and I have been 
present at every succeeding triennial meeting, 
except two, from which I was absent not by 
choice, but from necessity. 

I need hardly say that it gives me the greatest 
pleasure to be present here this evening, to meet 
again my brethren and friends. For, although, in 
looking around this hall, I miss the friendl}^ old 
familiar faces of many who have "joined the 
innumerable caravan that moves into the silent 
land," I still see a goodly gathering of friends, old 

193 



194 



and new, with whom I can give and receive 
the fraternal hand-clasp of the " one society of 
friends," founded on the banks of the Hudson 
in 1783. 

At the meeting in 1875, it so happened that, for 
the first time since the close of the civil war, all the 
existing State Societies were represented. The 
delegates from the States of Maryland and South 
Carolina had all been in the Confederate Army, 
and the delegates from all the other states had, 
naturally, supported the Federal cause. But the 
spirit of fraternity as Cincinnatists was too deep 
and strong to permit even the slightest word to 
be spoken, which could offend the most delicate 
susceptibility. All the proceedings were con- 
ducted in the true Cincinnati spirit, as a society 
of Americans, a society of friends, a society of 
gentlemen. 

Our distinguished President, who, although 
physically unable to be present on this occasion, 
is, as we all know, always with us in spirit, pre- 
sided at that meeting. And I shall never forget 
a statement made by that great American citizen, 
at that time Secretary of State in the cabinet of 
General Grant, in his speech accepting re-election 
to the office of President. He had held the highest 
offices in the gift of his native State of New York, 
and (excepting that of President) in the gift of the 
United States of America. But he declared, that 



195 

of all the honors that he had received in his life, 
the one he most prized, was that of being President- 
General of the Society of the Cincinnati. 

The impression made upon me then, as a young- 
member at his first general meeting, has not in 
any wise lessened in all these years. On the con- 
trary, each succeeding meeting which I attend, 
makes me more and more sensible of the honor 
conferred by membership in this ancient Society, 
and more and more appreciative of its purpose and 
mission. 

All of the kindred associations which have come 
into existence since 1876, composed of men and 
women of revolutionary blood, and which have for 
their objects the preservation of our national his- 
tory, have a mission ; the high and noble mission 
of perpetuating the glories of our republic, and the 
teaching of true Americanism. And this, too, is 
the mission of the Cincinnati. But to us alone as 
a Society, is the glory of being founded by the very 
men who founded the United States of America, at 
the end of their long war in 1783, not by Americans, 
however patriotic, after a hiatus of a century. And 
being strictly hereditary and in continuous exist- 
ence, from the beginning of our national history up 
to the present time, our members transmit direct 
from sire to son the traditions of the past, each 
family preserving as a precious heritage, the 
memory and the life-story of its own ancestor, 



196 



and of the services, civil and military, which he 
rendered to his country. 

We are accustomed to speak of ourselves as a 
new country, with few old associations and tra- 
ditions, but among the great governments of the 
civilized world we are as a government not at all 
new. We are older than most of them. The Re- 
public of France — the Empire of Germany — and 
the Kin2:dom of Italy — all date from 1870. The 
present Kingdom of Spain began 31st December, 
]874, after two years of existence as a Republic. 
The Empire of Austria began its existence as an 
empire only in 1804, about which time nearly 
every great nation of Europe changed its govern- 
ment and its rulers, in the general upheaval of 
the Napoleonic wars. Our government began on 
the 4th of March, 1789, so that of the principal 
Christian and civilized governments now existing, 
we are the seniors of all, except Russia and 
England. 

America as a geographical expression is now as 
compared to Europe, and the United States of 
America as a geographical expression is new as 
compared to France, or Germany, or Italy, or 
Spain, nevertheless the Republic under which we 
live is an older government than any of them. 
Our fathers built our house upon a rock, and 
the attacks of time have not as yet prevailed 
against it. 



197 

Columbus discovered America in 1492 (Don't 
be afraid, gentlemen, I am not going to enlarge on 
that subject. I know that during the past months 
you have been fully informed concerning that great 
event). The men who followed him and settled 
JVorth America, though mainly English, came from 
all the countries of Europe, and they brought the 
habits and traditions and ideas of their own 
countries with them. 

But there was one idea that they did not bring 
with them, an idea which was born on this conti- 
nent — the true fundamental iVmerican idea which 
was the beginning of Americanism, and found 
hero in America its first expression. 

Two hundred and eighty-four years after Colum- 
bus announced his discovery, the representatives 
of the thirteen American colonies made a declara- 
tion of this new idea, a discovery, a revolution in 
the social and political order, as great, as radical, 
and as fruitful in results, as was the discovery 
of Columbus in the geographical order, or the 
foundation of Christianity in the moral and re- 
ligious order. 

This idea may have been, nay, must have been, 
for centuries existing dormant in the minds of men, 
just as America had slept for countless ages in the 
solitude of the Atlantic waiting her discoverer. 

But it was born into the world on the 4th day of 
July, 1776, and its fathers, who in support of it 
26 



198 



mutually pledged to each other their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor, thus announced 

it- 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- 
tian inalienable rights and among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed ; and that whenever any form of govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people 
to alter or abolish it." 

In these days, with our American education, we 
can scarcely realize what that declaration meant to 
the mind of the eighteenth century. Every civil- 
ized government was then ruled by a King or an 
Emperor, An aristocracy existed in every country, 
with rights and privileges, rank and position, which 
placed them above, and superior to the rest of the 
common people. And the people were not called 
citizens, but subjects, and they were rightfully 
so-called, because custom and law subjected them 
to their feudal superiors, and made them live 
in a state of servitude unworthy of free men and 
citizens. 

Good men, intelligent men, pious men, believed 
and preached that a King was the Lord's an- 
ointed, and ruled by divine right, that there was 
a divinity that hedged him about, and made him 
something above our ordinary mortal clay, some- 
thing more than human. 



199 



It was the accepted theory of all men that the 
King could do no wrong, that it was his to com- 
mand and his subjects' duty to obey, almost as they 
would the decrees of the Divinity itself. 

Imagine, then, the amazement with which men 
heard this new doctrine; that government belonged 
to the people, and was their servant, and not their 
master — that all men were born free and equal — 
that the son of a King or an Emperor or a great 
Lord, came into the world, with no more rights 
than the son of the common man — that the divine 
right of Kings was a lying pretence — and that the 
only real Sovereign was the sovereign people. 

Could any doctrine have sounded more hetero- 
dox, more incendiary, more wicked, and more 
revolutionary, to the ear of the middle of the 
eighteenth century? 

But those men in Philadelphia were not afraid 
to proclaim it, and to sign their names to it, and 
to risk their lives and their fortunes to uphold it. 

And after signing their names they conclude 
their great document with this resolution — 

" Resolved : that copies of this declaration be sent to the several 
commanding officers of the Continental troops, and that it be 
proclaimed in each of the United States and at the head of the 
Army." 

The statesmen and thinkers had for the time 
being done their work. They had announced to 
the world their idea and its purpose and they con- 



200 



fided its execution to the several commanding 
officers of the Continental troops, to Washington 
and his generals. May we not say to the original 
members of the Society of the Cincinnati? 

In every great emergency there appears a 
Providential man, a man equipped by an all-wise 
Providence with all the requisites to meet the 
needs of the occasion. Our Providential man was 
George Washington. Already in command of the 
army months before the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, his obvious fitness to direct the fortunes of 
the revolution made him the man of destiny, and 
marked him as the leader, sent to accomplish the 
independence of our country. 

His youth, full of brave deeds in the Indian 
wars, trained him as a soldier. The vicissitudes 
and varying fortunes of the new Republic trained 
him as a statesman, but God Almighty created 
him a hero and a patriot. 

From the time that he assumed command of 
the army, until that day at Annapolis, when he 
laid down his stainless sword, having, as he said, 
in his own simple and modest words, "now finished 
the work assigned to him," no danger appalled 
him and no reverses discouraged him. 

During all these seven long, weary years, every 
fiber of his body, and every aspiration of his soul, 
was consecrated to his country's cause freely and 
unselfishly. 



201 



It seems incongruous to mention money in con- 
nection with the name of Washington, but in this 
practical age we should remember the fact that 
he would never receive any pay for his services. 
His soul was too great and his purpose too high. 
He Avould give his heart's blood for his country, 
but he wanted nothing in return, beyond that 
proud satisfaction which is the reward of well 
accomplished duty, the satisfaction of the patriot 
who has won his country's battle. 

But why should I speak to Americans, much 
less to you, my brethren, about the Father of our 
Country ? What can I say of him that you do 
not know? 

We of the Society of the Cincinnati have an 
ancient custom, handed down to us by our fathers 
who were by his side from 1776 to 1781. At our 
reunions the first and only regular toast is : " Gentle- 
men of the Cincinnati, the memory of Washington" 
— no more, no less. We speak no word. We 
drink the toast standing and in silence. We 
feel that the mere mention of his name, carries 
with it his eulogium and panegyric, and words 
are superfluous. 

I will follow the ancient custom of our society 
and "no further seek his merits to disclose." 
He sleeps with the immortals, " first in war, first 
in peace and first in the hearts of his country- 
men." 



202 

''Birds of a feather flock together " — Around the 
eagle Washington gathered other eagles. Great 
Nathaniel Grreene, who led our ^ Howard and 
Stewart and Gunby and Hall at Cowpens and 
Eutaw, and Guilford Court House. 

Mad Anthony Wayne, gallant, reckless, hand- 
some, panting like a young knight for glory, 
somewhat given to the use of strong language, as 
when he told General Washington that he would 
storm hell if his General ordered it (which was 
more patriotic than proper). He did storm Stony 
Point with Maryland's Col. Jack Stewart com- 
manding his left wing, one of the most heroic 
exploits in all the annals of war. 

And all the other great revolutionary names that 
rise up before us. When shall their glory fade ? 
Knox, Steuben, Putnam, Moultrie, St. Clair, Stark, 
Gates, Morgan, Schuyler, DeKalb, LaFayette and 
our own Smallwood, Gist, and Otho Williams. 

What a galaxy of heroes and patriots, and what 
a work they accomplished ! 

Well did they fulfill the trust confided to them 
by the signers of the Declaration of Independence 
and the Continental Congress. 

They created the greatest, freest and most pros- 
perous nation on the face of the earth, where the 
people are really sovereign, and the Government 

^This is tlie response by the Chairman of the Maryland delegation to 
the toast to " The Society in Maryland." 



203 

deriv^es its just powers only from the consent of 
the governed. 

And having finished their work they beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and, like Cincinnatus, 
retired to their homes to enjoy the fruits of their 
labors. But from the first they were willing to 
share their goodly heritage with all their fellow 
men. They held out their hospitable hands to the 
toilers over the sea, and bade the weary and heavy 
laden of all lands to come to them ; to come, not 
as sojourners and strangers, but as brethren — as 
citizens. And they have come in such numbers 
that the little thirteen colonies have expanded to 
a nation of sixty-five millions of people. 

The great Captains of the Revolution have long 
ago passed over to the farther shore — 

" The Knights are dust, and their good swords are rust, 
Their souls are with the Saints we trust." 

But their memory lives ; and it is the duty of all 
Americans, and the special privilege of those of 
revolutionary blood, to see that it shall never die. 

This Republic of the United States, this great, 
free and happy country, is the handiwork and the 
monument of Washington and his ofiicers, the 
founders of our society. 

All men feel a pride in honorable ancestry. 
Some claim descent from the Crusaders, some from 
the adventurers who with William the JN'orman 
conquered England. 



204 



For us Americans it is honor enough, to be 
descended from an original member of the Society 
of the Cincinnati. 

It has existed since 1783. It has no political, 
sectional, selfish or unworthy purpose. It is purely 
American. To use the words of the fathers. May 
it " endure as long as we shall endure or any of 
our oldest male posterity." Esto perpetua. 



ADDRESS. 



Delivered before the United Catholic 

Literary Societies, at Bay Ridge, 

30th of June, 1894. 



THE Catholic Congress which met in Baltimore 
in the fall of 1889, was fruitful in good 
results, and among other good things which 
it brought about was the formation of the United 
Catholic Literary Association, under whose ausjDices 
we are gathered together to-day. The object of 
this Association is simply to keep all our Catholic 
lyceums and literary societies in touch and in 
sympathy, so that they may have the opportunity 
to meet on some common ground in the friendly 
rivalry of debate or literary discourse. The fire of 
genius is not unlike that fiery spark which is in the 
flint stone, it will never show itself until brought 
into sharp contact and attrition with another flint, 
and the sharper the contact the more sparks will fly. 
27 205 



206 

Through the munificence of the Rev. Father 
Didier, who donated to the society its present home, 
No. 21 East Centre Street, an Employment Bureau 
has been opened, where fees are not charged until 
positions are actually obtained, and this feature has 
so far given most satisfactory results. 

For some years past (I believe five), this annual 
excursion has been held for the purposes of social 
intercourse and recreation, and the day chosen is 
called " Catholic Day." 

When I contemplate this vast assemblage of fair 
women and brave men, gathered here on the shores 
of this beautiful Chesapeake Bay, and reflect that 
they represent nearly one-third of the population 
of the great city of Baltimore, imagination carries 
me back throuoh the centuries to the first Catholic 
Day in Maryland, when Leonard Calvert, with his 
little band of two hundred, landed at St. Mary's, 
and founded this good old State of Maryland. 

Fortunately, we have the testimony of an eye 
witness and participant in the events of that day, 
and do not need to violate the rules of law and 
produce hearsay evidence. 

My grandfather's brother, a Jesuit priest, Father 
William McSherry, in the year 1832, discovered in 
the archives of the Society of Jesus, in Rome, a 
paper called the " Relatio Itineris," which proved 
to be a full account of the voyage of the Ark and 
the Dove, written by Father Andrew White, who, 



207 

together with Father John Altham, another Jesuit, 
was a missionary who accompanied the expedition. 
This paper Father McSherry carefully copied and 
deposited in the archives of Georgetown College, 
and it has been translated and published in its 
entirety by the Maryland Historical Society, recog- 
nizing it as the very foundation and cornerstone of 
the history of Maryland. 

A voyage in those days was an undertaking 
before which the stoutest heart might quail. Navi- 
gation was comparatively a new science, pirates 
infested the seas, and so many nations were at war, 
that it was difficult to know what was a friendly or 
unfriendly port in case that it was necessary to 
make a haven of refuge. 

All of these things the good Father White tells 
us. " On the 22d JSTovember, 1633, being St. 
Cecilia's day, they sailed from Cow^es, in the Isle 
of Wight, after committing the principal parts of 
the ship to the protection of God especially, and of 
His most Holy Mother, and St. Ignatius and all 
the guardian angels of Maryland." After many 
dangers and vicissitudes, they arrived at Old Point 
Comfort, in Virginia, on the 27th of February, 1634. 
There they rested some nine or ten days. Then 
they proceeded to explore this new country, and 
on the 25th day of March, 1634, day of the 
Annunciation, they celebrated the Mass for the 
first time on St. Clement's Island. 



208 



The good Father says : " This had never been 
done before in this part of the world. After we 
had completed the sacrifice we took upon our 
shoulders a great cross which we had hewn out of 
a tree, and advancing in order to the appointed 
place with the assistance of the Governor and his 
associates and the other Catholics, we erected a 
trophy to Christ the Saviour, humbly reciting on 
our bended knees the Litanies of the Sacred Cross 
with great emotion." 

And this, ladies and gentlemen, was the first 
" Catholic day " in Maryland, the first Christian 
day in Maryland, and the beginning of a new 
epoch in the history of the world. 

For these our ancestors brought with them more 
than the outward and visible signs of the faith. 
They brought the inward and spiritual grace of 
Christianity, which preached not only glory to God 
on high, but also peace on earth to men of good 
will, toleration, freedom of conscience, the glorious 
doctrine of religious liberty. 

We of to-day, brought up under free American 
institutions, can scarcely understand the temper of 
those times, and the trials and persecutions which 
these men had suffered for conscience' sake. To 
be a Catholic was to be a criminal, subject to 
penalties of every kind, confiscation of property, 
imprisonment, death. A priest was an outlaw who 
incurred the death penalty by merely putting his 



209 



foot on English soil. Acts of Parliament, begin- 
ning in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, 
declared that it was treason to the King, and 
punishable with death to deny his spiritual 
supremacy. For this offense, the great Chancellor, 
Sir Thomas More, who. Sir James Makintosh says, 
was one of the best men that was born in England 
in a thousand years, was beheaded, as were many 
others. And all through the reigns of Elizabeth, 
and James the First, and Charles the First, these 
persecutions continued, so that it was impossible 
under the laws, for any Catholic to practise his 
religion in quiet and in safety. 

In this condition of affairs, in order to provide 
a place of refuge for his persecuted co-religionists, 
the great George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, 
petitioned the King for the territory where we are 
now standing, and prepared the charter. But 
d^dng before it could be signed, it was on the 20th 
of June, 1632, delivered to Cecilius, second Lord 
Baltimore, the worthy son of his good and great 
father, by King Charles L, who named the land 
" Terra Mariae,'' or Maryland, after his queen 
Henrietta Maria. 

And so the Ark and the Dove carried to this 
beautiful bay, the men who, flying from intoler- 
ance and persecution at home, brought Christian 
charity in their hearts, and at once held out their 
hospitable hands to men of all religions and bade 



210 

them welcome to Maryland. For here on this 
Chesapeake shore, for the first time in history, 
every man had liberty to do the right as God 
gave him to see the right. And here in Catholic 
Maryland a Catholic Legislature passed the " act 
concerning religion," which was signed by the 
Catholic Lord Proprietary, and was the first 
official proclamation in all the world, recognizing 
freedom of conscience and religious liberty. 

How can we Marylanders think of it without a 
thrill of honest pride, that our forefathers gave to 
America and to the world this glorious procla- 
mation, which has been so well called the "day 
star of American Freedom." For, after religious 
liberty came civil liberty, and the new republic of 
the United States. 

And let it never be forgotten, that the old spirit 
of fairness and firmness which characterized the 
first colonists, survived in their descendants. Dur- 
ing and after the Revolution, when the first articles 
of confederation were under consideration, Virginia 
and other States claimed all the land back to the 
Mississippi River and even to the Pacific. Mary- 
land said no. The land beyond the boundaries of 
each colony, we have won from Great Britain by 
our common and mutual struggle, and we have 
given our blood to win it. It shall belong in 
common to all of the thirteen States ; and it was 
only in 1781 that the objectors admitted the 



211 



justice of Maryland's argument, and she signed 
the articles. Thus the great West and Northwest 
territory was thrown open to immigration and has 
become the wonder of the world. 

But with all the enormous prosperity and in- 
crease in population, which has been the result of 
civil and religious liberty in the United States, 
some evil things have developed, which may, if 
not checked and counteracted in time, become a 
formidable menace to our civilization. 

We have seen within the last few months the 
extraordinary spectacle, of men blasphemously 
calling themselves the reincarnation of the Saviour 
and marching at the head of a nondescript so- 
called army, which is even now in the neighbor- 
hood of the national capital with some project of 
law, so vague that they cannot themselves define it.^ 

Throughout the West we see bodies of lawdess 
men who seize the property of railroads, and claim 
free transportation as a right which they will assert 
by force of arms if necessary. And in the last 
few days the adjutant-general of a State has been 
tarred and feathered, simply because he did his 
duty as an officer of the law. There are men 
among us with wild theories of Socialism, who 
deny the right of property at all, and declare that 
governments ought not to exist. Socialists, com- 
munists, anarchists, the natural enemies of law 

^The Coxey "army" was at that time in camp near Wasliington. 



212 



and order, seem to be increasing in the land, 
endeavoring in all directions to disseminate their 
incendiary and pernicious doctrines. 

To counteract all this distorted and vicious form 
of thought, the strongest influence that can be 
brought to bear is the great conservative influence 
of religion, above all of the Catholic religion, which 
is the greatest conservative force on earth. 

The anarchist who defies all human law is 
almost invariably an atheist who defies divine 
law, and there can be no such thing in existence 
as a Catholic anarchist. 

Order is heaven's first law, and ministers of 
religion are everywhere supporters of law and 
order. Every parish priest who goes his daily 
rounds is a teacher, not only of religion but of 
good citizenship, and an American cannot be a 
good Catholic, without being a good citizen. 

Speaking, therefore, as an American citizen, and 
not from any religious standpoint, I rejoice to see 
this large gathering of societies and wish there 
were a hundred more. For every Catholic Society, 
be it literary, beneficial or social, whether it be 
called a Knighthood, or a Lyceum, or an Asso- 
ciation, is a potent factor for good government 
and conservatism. And the more widely that 
discipline of the mind which the Catholic Church 
teaches is disseminated, the more secure will be 
the government under which we live, and the 



213 



less will we have to consider either socialism or 
anarchy. 

A pall hangs to-day over our sister republic of 
France. A good man, a pure man, and a useful 
man, the President of the republic, has been within 
the last forty-eight hours stricken down by the' 
dagger of the assassin. He was in a state carriage 
with a guard of honor ; the streets were full of his 
friends and admirers, and police were everywhere. 
But all of this did not protect him. Do you know 
what would have protected him more effectually 
than all the guards in the world ? A little religion 
in the heart of that assassin, would have been 
more potent to save the life of President Carnot, 
than anv conceivable human safe^^uard. 

%j CD 

So that I feel in looking at these societies of 
ours, all affiliated with churches and under the 
auspices of religion, that they are the safeguards 
of the Republic. May they increase in influence 
and in numbers, and may each succeeding Catholic 
Day show a larger and fuller harvest from the 
seed sown by our forefathers at St. Mary's on 
the 25th of March, 1634, the first Catholic Day in 
Maryland. 



28 



Some Family Portraits 



AND 



SOME MARYLAND BIOGRAPHY. 



ON the walls of my library hang several pictures 
of very great value to me, and of considerable 
historical interest, at least in Maryland. 
They are portraits of my father, Dr. Richard 
McSherry, by Hall wig, and also a miniature by 
his life-long friend. General David Strother (Porte 
Crayon) ; of my great-grandfather, General John 
Kilty, by Sharpless ; of his brother, my great- 
grand-uncle, Chancellor William Kilty, by Rem- 
brandt Peale ; and of my great-uncle. Rear- Admiral 
Augustus H. Kilty, U. S. N., by Dabour. 

Lord Macaulay's Roman singer tells us that no 
man can die in a better way " than facing fearful 
odds for the ashes of his fathers." And if it be so 
high a duty to protect what remains of "this muddy 
vesture of decay," after it ceases " to grossly close 
us in," how much more obligatory is it to preserve 

215 



216 

the memory, the spiritual part, of those of our own 
blood, who have gone before us. 

Scientist, General, Chancellor, Admiral, " Non 
omnis moriar,''^ some part of you shall not die, at 
least so much as may be preserved by this slight 
record. 

Before a congregation which filled the old Cathe- 
dral to its very doors, and represented the best of 
ecclesiastical, literary, professional, and social Bal- 
timore, Bishop Curtis, his intimate friend and 
confessor, preached my father's funeral sermon. 
Pointing to the coffin, over which Cardinal Gibbons 
had just given the last benediction of the church, 
he said, " There lies what was science, and intellect, 
and knowledge, and culture, but of all the qualities 
of his mind the most predominant was humility, 
modesty. He never himself really appreciated his 
own power and worth ; I was his friend and know 
whereof I speak." The good Bishop exaggerated 
nothing when he said those words. 

Doctor Richard McSherry was born in Martins- 
burg, West Virginia, 21st JN'ovember, 1817. His 
father, Richard McSherry, was for 50 years the 
leading physician in that community.^ His mother 

^The following account of his life was written by the Hon. Charles J. 
Faulkner, for many years member of Congress from that district, and 
ex-minister to France. Mr. Faulkner was a ward of the first Richard 
McSherry and brought up in his family. It was published at the time of 
the old Doctor's death : 

"Dr. Richard McSherry was born in the county of Berkeley, upon the 
farm known as 'Retirement,' near Leetown, on the 28th of May, 1792, and 



217 

svas Miss Ann C. King, of Georgetown, D. C, who 
was a lineal descendant of the first Lord Baltimore. 
His grandfather, Richard McSherry, was an Irish 
gentleman, who had settled in Jamaica, but came 
to this country in the latter half of the eighteenth 
century. He arrived at first in Baltimore, soon 
afterwards married Miss Anastatia Lilly, of Cono- 
wago, Pennsylvania, and finally settled on his estate, 
"Retirement," in Jefi'erson County, Virginia, where 
he died in 1822. He was one of the largest land- 
was the eldest son of Richard and Anastatia McSherry, who both lived 
and died on that estate. He was educated at an academy at Frederick, 
Maryland, then at Hagerstown, and lastly, at Georgetown College, D. C, 
where he went through a full course of instruction. He commenced the 
study of medicine under Dr. Samuel J. Creamer, a graduate of Edinburg, 
and a very accomplished physician, residing at Charlestown. From thence 
he went to Philadelphia and entered the office of Prof. Nathaniel Chapman, 
of the University of Pennsylvania, at which university he graduated in 
medicine in 1816. Meantime, while attending the lectures, the war of 1812 
broke out and he joined a company from his native county, and marched to 
encounter our British invaders; and, upon the death of the medical officer 
attached to the command, he was commissioned in his place, and served as 
a surgeon rntil the end of the war. 

" In 1816, he commenced the practice of his profession in Martinsburg, 
and enjoyed an extensive and lucrative practice until 1871, when he with- 
drew from the practice. He was married in January, 1817, to Miss Ann 
C. King, daughter of Mr. George King, of Georgetown, D. C, whoi-e family 
were of the early Maryland colonists. 

" He died in Baltimore, at the residence of his son, on the 20th of Decem- 
ber, 1873, and his remains were interred in the Catholic cemetery of 
Martinsburg. 

" No man enjoyed a more enviable reputation than Dr. McSherry. As a 
physician, he stood in the first rank of his j)rofession, and by constant study 
kept progress with the advance of medical science. His mild and amiable 
temper, bland and courteous deportment to all, made him a general favorite. 
His reading extended beyond the scope of his professional studies, and his 
familiarity with history and general literature made him at all times an 
agreeable companion. He was kind and charitable, and bore throughout 
life a reputation of unsullied integrity." 



218 



holders in the lower valley, and, being* a very 
well-known Catholic, all priests who travelled in 
that direction were his guests, and the chapel at 
*' Retirement" was for many years the only place 
in all that section where mass was ever celebrated.^ 

My father was educated at Georgetown College, 
of which his uncle, Rev. William McSherry, S. J., 
was President. He studied medicine in the Uni- 
versities of Maryland and Pennsylvania, gradu- 
ating in Philadelphia. He was commissioned in 
the U. S. Army, 21st August, 1838, as an assistant 
surgeon, and served under General Taylor, in the 
Seminole War in Florida.^ In 1840, he resigned 
his commission. 

On January 4th, 1842, he was married by Arch- 
bishop Eccleston, to Catherine Somerville, oldest 
child of Robert Wilson, and his wife Elizabeth 
Kilty. The ceremony took place at the country 
residence of Robert Wilson, Sr., the bride's grand- 
father, " The Cottage Newington," now that part 

^In this connection some very curious stories are told. The missionary 
priest, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, who was a constant visitor at " Retirement" 
at that time, wrote about them and believed them. They are all published 
in a work, by Father Joseph M. Finotti, called "The Mystery of the Wizard 
Clip," I have heard these stories since my earliest childhood, but I feel 
concerning them very much as old Bernal Diaz did, in Mexico, when he was 
told that St. James himself came down from heaven on a white horse, and 
assisted Cortes to rout the heathen and capture the city. Old Bernal said : 
" I am no clerk, only a soldier. Perhaps the blessed Santiago was there, 
and I, sinner that I am, was unworthy to behold him, hut I would feel more 
sure of it if I had seen him with my own eyes. 

^ His miniature, by General Strother, is taken in the army uniform of 
that date. 



219 

of the city of Baltimore, between Fulton Avenue 
and Gilmor Street, near North Avenue. 

On the 22nd November, 1843, he was com- 
missioned as assistant surgeon in the United States 
Navy. At the breaking out of the Mexican War, 
a regiment of marines was sent to the front, and 
from the medical staff of the Navy, Dr. McSherry 
was detailed as their regimental surgeon, and Dr. 
Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, as assistant 
surgeon. He served during the whole campaign 
under General Winfield Scott, and was present at 
the capture of Chapultepec, and of the City of 
Mexico. Being an excellent Spanish scholar, he 
had exceptional advantages for observation in his 
intercourse with the Mexicans, and on his return, 
he wrote " El Puchero," or "a mixed dish from 
Mexico," a work which had a great success at that 
time. 

He made a cruise around the world in the 
frigate ''Constitution" (Old Ironsides), under Cap- 
tain "Jack" Percival, and served in the East and 
West Indies, North and South America, Asia and 
Africa. During all his travels, he was an ardent 
student of his profession, and acquired a knowledge 
of a great variety of diseases. He resigned from 
the Navy on 17th April, 1851, being then stationed 
at the Naval hospital at Norfolk, and removed his 
family to Baltimore, where he resided all the rest 
of his life. 



220 

He was elected Professor of Materia Medica and 
Therapeutics, in the University of Maryland in 
1862, and subsequently took the chair of Principles 
and Practice of Medicine, which he held until he 
died. He was President of the Medical and 
Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, in J 883, and 
was one of the founders and the first President of 
the Baltimore Academy of Medicine. At the time 
of his death he was President of the State Board 
of Health. As a representative citizen, physician, 
and churchman (for he was a devout Catholic),^ he 
was constantly called upon to fill public positions, 
for which his well-stored mind, fine presence, and 
exceptional oratorical powers, so well fitted him. 
But withal, and notwithstanding his conscientious 
attention to his large private practice, he always 
found some time to devote to literary pursuits, 
and outside of his very numerous contributions 
to medical literature, he wrote and published a 
number of other works, " Health, and how to 
promote it," " The Early History of Maryland," 
"Mexico and Mexican afi'airs," and a number of 
scholarly essays on various subjects. 

His useful and honorable life came to an end on 
7th October, 1885. Surrounded by his family, he 
passed away after a month's illness, and was buried 
in his family lot in Bonnie Brae Cemetery. The 

^He was continuously the physician to the last four of the Archbishops 
of Baltimore, including the present incumbent, Cardinal Gibbons. 



221 



press of Baltimore, and the various institutions 
with which he was connected, all made appro- 
priate mention of his death, and eulogized his 
character. 

Dr. McSherry had eight children ; four died very 
young. One, William Kilty, a Lieutenant U. S. 
M. C. predeceased him, dying in his 26th year. 
He married Miss Charlotte Combs, but never had 
any children. Dr. McSherry 's widow died 2nd 
December, 1893. Three of his sons are now alive 
and reside in Baltimore, Richard Meredith, Henry 
Clinton, and Allan McSherrv.^ 

^ The name of McSherry was originally Hodnet. A certain Odo de 
Hoddenet, who was in the army of William the Conqueror, received as a 
reward for his services, the lands in Shropshire, England, which are still 
called Hodnet. One of his descendants, presumably an adventurous younger 
son, went to Ireland with Strongbow. His name was Geoffrey Hodnet. 
In "Irish Kames of Places," by Joyce, M. H. Gill & Son, Dablin, 1883, 
Vol. 2, p. 169, appears the following: "A little to the west of Kinsale 
in Cork is the bay and marine village of Courtmacsherry, the court of 
MacSherry, or Geoffrey's son. The person who built his residence or 
'Court' here and gave the place its name was an Englishman called 
* Hodnet ' who came from Shropshire, but the family degenerating \_sic] 
into the Irish customs, assumed tlie name of MacSherry. The original 
MacSherry is still vividly remembered in the traditions of the neighbor- 
hood." See also "Annals of the Four Masters," translated from the original 
Irish by Owen Connelan, note, p. 180, Byran Geraghty, Dublin, 1846, and 
Smith's "History of Cork," Vol. 2, p. 3. In the Irish Keltic language 
Mac means son of, and Sherry means Geoffrey, and this Geoffrey Hodnet, 
the founder of the family, who created the name, was therefore the pro- 
genitor of all the numerous MacSherrys born since his time. In Cromwell's 
time James and Edmond Hodnet MacSherry were outlawed as Catholics 
and Royalists, and dispossessed of Courtmacsherry, which was then given 
by the Protector to one of his followers, a Major Gaskins. The writer 
visited Courtmacsherry some years aso, and heard many verbal con- 
firmations of the family traditions. At that time the estate belonged to 
Lady Boyle for life, with remainder at her death to her nephew, the 
Earl of Shannon. 

29 



222 



The following Obituary Editorial appeared 

IN THE Maryland Medical Journal, 

17th October, 1885. 

We are rarely called upon to chronicle the death 
of any one whose loss is so universally felt as that 
of Dr. McSherry. His position in this community 
was a singularly enviable one. He was the repre- 
sentative of all that is cultivated, dignified and 
honorable in the medical profession, and combined 
in an unusual manner the skill, experience and 
learning of the physician, with the tact, grace and 
amiability of the gentlemen. To the wealth of 
information, derived from a life of studv, he added 
large stores of practical experience, gathered in 
many parts of the earth, as army and navy surgeon, 
as well as in an extensive practice in Baltimore. 
His lectures were clear, concise and practical, not 
unfrequently adorned with apt classical quota- 
tion or seasoned with crisp, humorous anecdote. 
Students were always attracted by his genial, 
kindly nature, and felt no hesitation in laying 
their troubles before him, and whether the plea 
was for professional information or for relief in 
personal difficulties, none left him without feeling 
an increase of that affectionate and grateful re- 
gard in which he was universally held. He was 
particularly kind and considerate towards the 
younger members of the profession, and while he 



223 



always had the courage of his convictions, no one 
who knew him ever entered the consultation room 
with him, in the fear of any of those unmanly 
methods which sometimes makes consultations 
odious. He was always fair and honorable, and 
a meeting with him was often of as much advan- 
tage to the doctor as to the patient. In religion 
he was a devout Catholic, and although he clung 
to his faith with noble consistency, he always 
manifested the greatest liberality towards those 
who were not of the same ecclesiastical household. 
He lived a singularly pure and blameless life, 
and met death with the same unflinching fortitude 
he had shown in the contingencies of life. 



A special meeting of the Medical and Chirur- 
gical Faculty of Maryland was held on October 
10th to take action in regard to the death of 
Professor McSherry. The meeting was called to 
order by the President, Dr. John R. Quinan, who 
made the following eulogistic remarks : 

Gentlemen of the Faculty : — Without being privi- 
leged to claim an intimacy with our late distin- 
guished colleague for as long a period as some 
of you enjoyed, yet I have known him sufficiently 
to have acquired a profound respect for his talents 
as a physician, and a loving regard and admiration 
for him as a man. 



224 

My first acquaintance with him began twenty- 
seven years ago, when I met him at my father's 
(whose family physician he was) in attendance on 
my brother. I am also myself indebted to him 
for his skillful and kind attention to me during 
sickness, and since my removal to Baltimore, in 
1869, I have had frequent occasion for his pro- 
fessional aid and counsel, and every interview has 
only deepened my appreciation of his talents, skill 
and worth. 

In a cooler mood and with feelings less agitated 
by a sense of our recent loss, I should take interest 
in tracing his long and brilliant professional career 
— from the time he sailed in the " Constitution " 
and gathered his varied observations of disease 
in every country and clime, to the day when he 
followed the fortunes of Gen. Taylor through the 
Everglades of Florida, and again Scott, to his 
bloody but triumphant march to the City of 
Mexico — the record of which he has embraced in 
" El Puchero," a book that can still be read by lay 
and professional readers with profit and pleasure. 

Again we would like to follow him into his 
civil practice, and eminently successful pursuit of 
his profession in Baltimore from 1851 till his 
death. We would recall the solid wisdom of his 
instruction in the Chairs of Materia Medica and 
of Practice in the Maryland University, and the 
dignity with which he graced the highest office 



225 

in your gift, the Presidency of this venerable 
Faculty ; but I leave this portraiture to another 
occasion and to some abler hand. Enough for 
us to-day to feel assured, (as all must do who 
knew him) that his biographer, however critical, 
will find his subject faithful to his trust in every 
position he has filled, and entitled to the verdict, 
which is but the echo of our own hearts to-day, 
*' Well done, good and faithful servant." To-day, 
my feelings prompt me rather to dwell on his 
virtues as a man ; on those individual traits of 
character that endeared him most to those who 
knew him best. 

Inheriting the blood of the Calverts on the one 
side, and the stern principles and fervid patriot- 
ism of a Revolutionary sire on the other (for I 
am a full believer in the inheritance of both 
mental and physical qualities), he seemed to unite 
in his own character and manners, the gentle 
courtesy of the one ancestor, with the courage and 
unflinching firmness of the other. He was truly a 
brave Christian gentleman, a very Bayard, " with- 
out fear and without reproach," and recalled to me 
Wordsworth's portrait of the " Happy Warrior," 

" Who, doomed to go in company with Pain 
And Fear and Bloodshed — melancholy train — 
Turns his necessity to glorious gain, 
More skillful in self-knowledge, even more pure 
As tempted more ; more able to endure 



226 

As more exposed to suffering and distress, 

Thence also more alive to tenderness ; 

But who, if he be called upon to face 

Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined 

Great issues, good or bad, for humankind. 

Is happy as a lover, and attired 

With sudden brightness, as a man inspired. 

And through the heat of conflict keeps the law 

In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw. 

He, who, though thus endued with a sense 

And faculty for storm and turbulence, 

Is yet a soul whose master bias leans 

To homefelt pleasures and gentle scenes, 

Who, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 

His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause." 

Such was our friend, and to his name we pay the 
willing homage of our hearts to-day. Brothers, if 
we cannot claim his talents, let us emulate the 
example of his virtues and his life. 

On motion, a committee of five was appointed to 
draft resolutions and to report at this meeting. 

The Committee, consisting of the following 
gentlemen, Drs. S. C. Chew, C. Johnston, F. E. 
Chatard, eTr., Thos. Latimer and Thos. Murdoch, 
presented the resolutions, which were offered by 
Dr. S. C. Chew in the following words : 

M7\ President and Grentlemen of the Faculty : — In 
presenting the resolutions prepared by your Com- 
mittee, I desire to say a few brief words prompted 
by the relations of close personal friendship which 
existed for many years between Dr. McSherry 



227 

and myself. These relations have now become 
memories, and all the more valued and cherished 
memories from the fact that they are a transmitted 
heritage, the continuation of a long and cordial 
intimacy between Dr. McSherry, and his imme- 
diate predecessor in the Chair of Practice of 
Medicine in the University of Maryland, my 
father. It was my privilege and my pleasure to 
know Dr. McSherry very thoroughly, both in pro- 
fessional and personal intercourse. As a physician, 
he was distinguished by the quality of judicious- 
ness which made him a good and safe practitioner. 
He was eminently conservative ; and, while always 
willing to give fair trial to whatever of new might 
come with good credentials, yet he never allowed 
himself to be swayed, either as to methods of 
practice or the use of individual agents, by those 
waves of medical opinion which so often show to 
the educated intelligence that they are transitory 
and delusive. As there are many present who will 
agree with me in this estimate of his professional 
abilities, so there are some whose opportunities of 
knowing him were such that they can confirm my 
statement that, as to his personal character. Dr. 
McSherry was among the best of men. He was 
eminently a pure-minded and a charitable man. 
In my long acquaintance with him I never knew 
him to entertain a sentiment or utter a word of 
unkindness towards anyone. Through life he was 



228 

governed in all his dealings by a truly Christian 
spirit ; and his acceptance of Christianity was not 
only an intellectual conviction of its truth ; it was 
that, as I know from very many conversations with 
him upon the subject, but it was something more 
than that. It was the guiding, actuating principle 
of his life, and he furnished another illustration of 
the truth, which has been set forth by the examples 
of many noble members of our profession, by 
Laennec, by Trousseau, by Couvelhier, by Paget, 
by Clark, and by a multitude of others, that there 
is no antagonism between the spirit that is occupied 
with the truths of physical science and the spirit 
which bows submissively and adoringl}- before the 
throne of God. 

Your Committee would offer the following reso- 
lutions : 

Resolved, That the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Mary- 
land, assembled to take action in regard to the death of their 
late fellow-member and former President, Dr. Richard McSherry, 
are profoundly conscious of the loss sustained by themselves 
as a Faculty, by the medical profession and by the whole com- 
munity. 

They would express their deep appreciation of those endow- 
ments and qualities of Dr. McSherry, which made him a judicious 
and conscientious practitioner, a wise and able counsellor of his 
professional brethren, a valued and beloved friend. 

While lamenting that he has been removed from the sphere 
of his faithful labors, they recognize the fact that the calm and 
peace of his closing hours, were the fitting end of his well-spent 
and noble life. 



229 



Remarks of Prof. Christopher Johnston in 
Seconding the Resolutions: 

Mr. President: — In seconding the resolutions of 
your Committee, I cannot allow the occasion to 
pass without giving expression to the deep sorrow 
which fills my heart at the loss of our distin- 
guished, revered and beloved brother and col- 
league, Professor Richard McSherry. He is gone, 
we see no more his venerable form and kindly 
face, but the example of his virtues will endure as 
long as memory holds her seat. 

It was my privilege to have enjoyed the ac- 
quaintance and friendship of Dr. McSherry for 
about twenty-five years, a period equal to the 
length of life of many gentlemen here present 
to-day. In all that time I had constant opportu- 
nities for observing his earnestness and assiduity, 
his ability as a practitioner and as a teacher of 
medicine, the vigor of his mind, the variety of his 
attainments, the fidelity of his friendships, and the 
scorn with w^hich he regarded all that is equivocal 
or base. I also was familiar with the directness 
of his action and the uprightness of his character, 
with the simplicity and dignity of his demeanor, 
and the wisdom and purity of his life. Thus the 
picture that I have sketched corresponds with that 
drawn by the mover of the resolutions before you, 
and you must feel that it is correct ; but if I should 
30 



230 



add anything to what I have said concerning our 
deceased brother, I would apply to him one of the 
most beautiful of the beatitudes : " Blessed are the 
pure in heart, for they shall see God." 

Dk. W. C. Van Bibbee's Remarks. 

In advocating the passage of these resolutions 
which have been offered, Mr. President and my 
brethren, permit me to say that, although they 
well express our feelings for the moment, yet, the 
death of an old and tried friend, like Dr. Richard 
McSherry, brings other feelings which words alone 
cannot express. 

We were reminded by the Rev. Orator at the 
altar yesterday that nothing which can be done by 
us here can in any way aifect him now. 

In the religious view which he took at the inter- 
ment of his remains, we can pray for his immortal 
soul, and this I trust we have done, and will con- 
tinue to do ; but for ourselves, individually and 
collectively, as in this society, of the interests of 
which he was always an ardent promoter, we may 
be benefitted and strengthened in our lives by 
holding up a mirror before him as he walked 
among us. And whilst looking upon it, let me 
describe briefly some of the reflections to be seen 
there, and some of the impressions which his life 
has left with us. 



231 



Dr. McSherry was not an ordinary man, and his 
friends will ever delight to dwell upon his memory. 
Fresh as that memory is now, and vivid in our 
midst upon this floor, let me endeavor to engrave 
it deeper into the minds, and to lay an humble 
flower upon his grave which will bloom before us 
as long as we may live. 

If we do not cherish the memory of our good 
and great men, our society will be recreant to its 
intention and loose in its interest. 

My first acquaintance with Dr. McSherry was 
nearly two-score years gone by, and since that 
time, but few weeks have passed in which we did 
not see each other in some way or other. I now 
feel the void, and no doubt as many of you do, 
feel as if strength was taken from us, and that 
honor, professional aid and cooperation had been 
removed. 

It is not given to all men to dazzle others with 
achievements which a few do accomplish. It is 
not the lot of all to leave behind them a fame 
which spreads wide and long. Neither can every 
man truly say, or absolutely believe, that his par- 
ticular profession or calling in life, whatever that 
may be, has been materially and wonderfully 
advanced by his labors ; but of Dr. McSherry it 
may be said that both in professional and private 
life his teaching was for true advancement, and 
his example manly and ennobling. 



232 



As a teacher of medical science, both public and 
private, he taught no original error for individual 
advancement, nor claimed knowledge which he did 
not possess. But in teaching those students who 
were entrusted to his care, he was careful in 
selecting his subjects, and always advocated indus- 
try and the training of the mind for future useful 
study. He taught no false doctrine knowingly, 
but had a talent for sifting the good from the bad, 
the useful from the worthless, the practical from 
the impossible, the genuine from the fictitious. In 
his own particular branch he excelled in reconciling 
the differences amongst authors upon disputed 
points, and delighted to show his pupils the most 
prominent points and parts in the diagnosis of 
disease. 

So plain and exact was he as a teacher, so 
conscientious and painstaking, that his lectures 
sometimes lost in interest and brilliancy when, 
even by some equivocation, he might have made 
them more attractive and remarkable. 

If these were some of Dr. McSherry's distin- 
guishing marks as a public and priv^ate professional 
teacher, the example he has left us in private life 
is yet more prominent. He was a man upright 
and honest and always to be depended upon, and 
never to be doubted. One whose aim was for good 
and never for evil, whose happiness was to contem- 
plate virtue and to reprove vice. He was one 



233 



whom we shall all miss and for whom we shall 
ever grieve, but whose life and example it will 
always be a pleasure and an advantage to us to 
recollect. 

Pkofessoe W. T. Howard's Remarks : 

Mr. President : — I cannot permit this solemn 
scene to pass away without laying an humble 
leaf upon the bier of my late eminent colleague 
and warmly-cherished friend. For eighteen years 
we taught in the same school of medicine, and 1 
have had numerous opportunities to know him 
well. Always and everywhere he was the model 
genileman^ high above all chicanery and tricks in 
and out of the profession, open-hearted and open- 
handed. In the wide field of his usefulness and 
toils, he had few equals among us. Of vast and 
varied opportunities for observation and study 
over nearly the whole civilized world, he had 
acquired an immense amount of valuable infor- 
mation, not only in his chosen profession but in 
general literature and scientific culture. As a 
friend he was true and firm under every trial, 
and his genial smile and his intellectual face 
will long irradiate the memories of all who 
knew him well and enjoyed his confidence. His 
life was a beauty to behold and a blessing to 
regret. 



234 



Dk. T. a. Ashby's Remarks : 

Mr. President : — I desire to add my humble 
tribute of respect to the memory of Professor 
McSherry, and to endorse the beautiful and ap- 
propriate words and sentiments which have been 
expressed by the gentlemen who have preceded 
me. My acquaintance with Professor McSherry 
began soon after I came to this city as a student 
of medicine, and when I was entirely without 
friends and acquaintances in the medical pro- 
fession of Baltimore. He soon became my warm 
and generous friend, and I enjoyed his friendship 
until the day of his death. He freely gave me 
his advice and counsel in all matters of profes- 
sional duty and in many other of the relations 
of life. 1 learned to love him devotedly, and in 
his death I feel that I have lost a friend indeed 
and a friend in truth. 



GENERAL JOHN KILTY. 

An Irish gentleman, named John Kilty, was 
Captain, or Supercargo, of a vessel trading to the 
Province of Maryland, in the first half of the 
eis'hteenth century. He married a Miss Ellen 
Ahearn, of Bordeaux, France, and made his home 
in London. But as he had many friends and 



235 



acquaintances in Maryland, the Decourceys of the 
Eastern Shore, the Carrolls of the Western Shore, 
and other worthies of that date, he resolved some 
time before the breaking out of the revolutionary 
war, to take up his residence in America, and with 
his family went to Annapolis. He remained there 
as a guest of Mr. Carroll, until he purchased and 
settled upon an estate, in Calvert County, Mary- 
land. He was an ardent patriot, and was largely 
consulted by the Committee of Safety in the trying 
times which immediately preceded the struggle 
for independence. 

He had one daughter, Lydia, who married Mr. 
Gilbert Smith, and two sons, both born in Lon- 
don, and educated at the College of St. Omer's in 
France, and both officers in the Maryland line. 

The older son, John Kilty, was born in 1756. 
In 1776, he was comissioned an ensign in the third 
battalion of the flying camp, in Capt. Edward 
Tilliard's Company. In March, 1777, he was 
commissioned as Second Lieutenant in Captain 
Edward JNTorwood's Company, in the famous fourth 
battalion of regulars of which Josias Carvill Hall 
was Colonel, Samuel Smith, Lt.-Col., and John 
Eager Howard, Major ; and he shared with his 
comrades the trials and the glories of the jN"orthern 
campaign through Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, 
until the affair in Long Island, where he was taken 
prisoner. He was later promoted to a Captaincy, 



236 

and, at the dissolution of the army in 1783, held 
the commission of Captain in the 1st regiment of 
light dragoons, with a record of six years and eight 
months of active service. 

At the close of the war he retired to Annapolis, 
and married Miss Catherine Quynn, daughter of 
Allen Quynn. They had nine children, five sons 
and two daughters, who all died unmarried and 
without issue, and two married daughters, the 
elder, Elizabeth, who married Robert Wilson, a 
distinguished member of the Maryland bar, and 
the younger, Ellen Ahearn, who married Major 
Schmuck of the United States Army. Having, in 
addition to his brilliant military record, exceptional 
educational advantages, both in literature and the 
fine arts, of fine presence and great dignity of 
character, Capain Kilty immediately took a promi- 
nent position in his community. 

He was first appointed president of the Gov- 
ernor's Council. Then President Washington 
appointed him Supervisor of the Revenue of the 
general government, within the State of Mary- 
land ; and he subsequently held the ofiices of Land 
Commissioner for the Western Shore, and Briga- 
dier-Generalj and Adjutant- General of Maryland, 
up to the date of his death. In 1808, he published 
his well-known book, " The Landholder's Assistant 
and Landholder's Guide," a work of great learning 
and usefulness to Maryland lawyers and land- 



237 

holders, and of special interest to the student of 
Maryland history. He died at his countr}^ seat 
'' Primrose," near Annapolis, on the 27th May, 
1811, in the 55th year of his age. In the formation 
of the Society of the Cincinnati in Maryland, he 
was one of the most prominent movers, and filled 
many important offices in it. 



CHANCELLOR WILLIAM KILTY. 

William Kilty, younger brother of John Kilty, 
was born in London, in 1757, and educated at the 
college of St. Omer's in France. He came with his 
father and family to America, and settled in 
Maryland shortly before the revolution broke out. 
He entered the service as a surgeon in 1776, and 
served until the dissolution of the army in 1783. 

He then began the study of law^, was called to 
the bar, and very soon took a distinguished posi- 
tion in that brilliant galaxy of lawyers, who then 
ornamented the Maryland bar. 

On 3rd March, 1801, he was appointed by 
President Adams, First Chief-Justice of the Cir- 
cuit Court of the District of Columbia, which office 
he held until 24th February, 1806, when he 
resigned, and was succeeded by Judge Cranch. 
His resignation was caused by the desire of the 
bar for his appointment as Chancellor of Mary- 
31 



238 

land; which high office he held from 25th January, 
1806, until the day of his death. 

He died in Annapolis on the 10th October, 1821, 
aged 64 years, and the bar of Maryland held a 
meeting on the following day, and passed a resolu- 
tion that both bench and bar should wear crape 
on their arms for thirty days, in memory of this 
revolutionary patriot, and great Maryland lawyer, 
distinguished alike at the bar and on the wool- 
sack. Appointed by the legislature, and by the 
governor and council, for that purpose, he pre- 
pared the works known as " Kilty's laws of 
Maryland," and " Kilty's English statutes appli- 
cable in Maryland," which, by legislative enact- 
ment, became the foundation of statute law in 
Maryland after the revolution, and remain to this 
day the best monument to Chancellor Kilty. 

He married Miss Elizabeth Middleton, of Cal- 
vert County, Maryland, but never had any children- 
Like his older brother John, he was a man of 
great culture, a scholar and a musician. They 
w^ere both active in the formation of the Society of 
the Cincinnati of Maryland, both signed the origi- 
nal institution and duly qualified as members, 
and they lie together now in the old cemetery of 
Annapolis, under a handsome monument erected 
to their memory by General Kilty's youngest son 
and successor in the Society of the Cincinnati, 
Rear- Admiral Augustus H. Kilty, U. S. X. 



239 



Eear-Admiral AUGUSTUS HENRY KILTY, U. S. N., 

was born in Annapolis, November, 1807, and was 
the youngest, and last surviving child, of General 
John Kilty. He was appointed to the navy, from 
the State of Maryland, on 4th July, 1821, and 
made his first voyage as a midshipman in the 
flag-ship " Franklin," Commodore Stewart, which 
cruised in the Pacific, from 1821 to 1824. The 
followino' vear he was transferred to the frio-ate 
" Constitution," on board of which he remained 
until 1827. In 1830 and 1831, he was a member 
of the party which surveyed the coast of Louisiana, 
and distinguished himself in the many adventures 
which befell the ofiicers sent on that mission by 
the government. In April, 1832, he was promoted 
to past-midshij)man, and served in the schooner 
" Grampus," on the West India station until 1834, 
when he joined the receiving shi23 " Sea Gull," in 
Philadelphia. 

On 6th September, 1837, he was commissioned 
as Lieutenant, and was assigned to service on the 
sloop-of-war " John Adams," in the East India 
squadron. He was present at the attack on Qualla 
Battoo and Muckie in 1840, and acquitted himself 
noblv on that occasion. 

From 1840 to 1850, he was on the ship " Colum- 
bus," and the frigate " United States," cruising in 
the Mediterranean, and on the coasts of Africa and 



240 

Brazil. In 1854, he was stationed on the receiv- 
ing ship "North Carolina" in New York. 

In 1855, he was made a commander, and in 
1860 and 1861 was stationed in Baltimore, where 
he made himself famous by his refusal to haul 
down the American flag, floating over the naval 
stations in the city, as ordered by an enraged mob. 
He declared that he would blow out the brains 
of the first man that touched the flag. But the 
Secretary of the Navy, to relieve the situation, in 
view of the very great excitement in Baltimore, 
ordered the receiving stations to be temporarily 
closed, and the flags were accordingly lowered. 
He was then ordered to St. Louis, to aid in organ- 
izing the flotilla under Foote, took command of 
the gun-boat " Mound City," and was engaged at 
Island Number Ten, and Fort Pillow. In the 
latter engagement the " Mound City " was sunk, 
and Commander Kilty and his crew made a narrow 
escape from death. 

The gun-boat was raised, repaired, and rejoined 
the flotilla, and her commander took charge of her 
again. In 1862, he was given the command of a 
fleet of gun-boats, and made an attack on Fort 
Charles, on the White River, about one hundred 
miles from the Mississippi. After a brave and 
heroic struggle, during which he was leading the 
action with his flag-ship, wherever the danger was 
greatest, he won the victory. Near the close of 



241 

the engagement, a shot perforated the steam drum 
of the " Mound City," and the escape of steam 
caused the death of over one hundred of her 
officers and men. 

Commander Kilty, who was in the wheel-house 
when the explosion took place, was taken out by 
some of his crew, very badly scalded, and in con- 
sequence lost his left arm. Captain Fry, the Con- 
federate Commander, was also very badly wounded. 
He was the same officer who subsequently com- 
manded the " Virginius," and was captured and 
shot by the Spanish authorities in Cuba. 

Commander Kilty's magnanimous attention to 
his wounded prisoner, at that time, showed the 
natural chivalry of his character. The two com- 
manders lay side by side on the deck of the 
federal gun-boat; and considering Fry's condition 
the more serious, Kilty ordered his surgeon to 
attend to his brave enemy before himself. When 
they were taken ashore, under the idea that Cap- 
tain Kilty was dying, some demonstrations were 
made in the streets by sailors and camp followers 
hostile to Captain Frv ; whereupon Captain Kilty 
ordered Captain Fry to be placed in the room 
with himself, and told his men, that any man who 
wanted to attack Captain Fry must first attack 
Captain Kilty,^ 

'Captain Fry, after his exchange, expressed his gratitude to Captain 
Kilty in the warmest terms. And the Confederate Naval officers who had 
been in the old Navy fully appreciated this chivalrous incident. 



242 

As soon as he recovered from his wound, he 
was commissioned as full Captain, and assigned 
to Ordnance duty in Baltimore. This was in 
1863. He was then given the command of the 
iron -clad frigate " Roanoke," at that time the most 
formidable vessel in the JNTavy. Subsequently he 
commanded the "Vermont," and in July, 1866, he 
was commissioned Commodore, and commanded 
the JN'orfolk Navy-yard until 1st July, 1870, 
when he was retired with the rank of Rear- 
Admiral. 

He first lived in Washington, but soon after he 
removed to Baltimore, and died there on 10th 
IN'ovember, 1879. He was buried in " Bonnie 
Brae" cemetery, with the military honors due to 
his rank, after 58 years of faithful and distin- 
guished service to his flag and country. With 
him died the name of Kilty in Maryland, for 
neither he nor his brothers ever married. 

Admiral Kilty, in appearance and manner, was 
the beau ideal of an officer and a gentleman. 
From his earliest youth he cultivated the literary 
tastes inherited from his father, and uncle, and his 
knowledge of English authors was remarkable, 
particularly of the poets ; Shakespeare he had 
almost memorized ; and his library, although not 
very large, was an Anthology of our language. 
He was not a scientific musician, but had an ex- 
quisite ear, and great musical memory. His guitar 



243 

was famous, not only in our own, but in foreign 
navies. In his hands it was a wonderful instru- 
ment. He had a large and intimate acquaintance 
with the most distino-uished dramatic and musi- 
cal artists of his time, and his reminiscences were 
always interesting. He was a charming conversa- 
tionalist, but never could be induced to talk of his 
war record, and I know, personally, how deeply 
he felt the separation from his old companions in 
arms, who left the U. S. Navy and joined the 
Confederacy. Upon the death of his elder brother 
William he succeeded to the membership of his 
father in the Society of the Cincinnati, and was 
Vice-President of the Maryland Society when he 
died. 

A man of the strongest family affection, he was 
always ready, as son, brother, and uncle, to show 
how much he loved his own blood, and at the 
end of a noble life he died as became a sincere 
Christian, and devout Catholic. 

The Legislature of Maryland, in 1864, passed 
the following resolution : 

Be it Resolved, That the thanks of the State are hereby tendered 
to Captain A. H. Kilty, of Maryland, for the loyalty and courage 
with which he has performed his duty as an officer of the Navy, 
since the breaking out of the rebellion, and especially for his 
brilliant services in command of the gunboat " Mound City," in 
the fight at Fort Pillow, and in the attack on the batteries at 
Fort Saint Charles, on the White River, and that the General 
Assembly express their sympathy with Captain Kilty, in the 
severe bodily suffering and injury resulting to him from his fight, 



244 



and their pleasure at the prospect of his being again restored to 
active usefulness. 



And the Xavy Department issued the following 
General Order : 

General Order of Navy Department, 

Washington, November 11th, 1879. 

The Secretary of the Navy announces with regret, to the Navy 
and Marine Corps, the death of Bear- Admiral Augustus H. 
Kilty, on the 10th instant, at Baltimore, Maryland, in the 
seventy-second year of his age. 

Rear- Admiral Kilty entered the Navy as a midshipman July 
4, 1821, and was zealous and prompt in the performance of every 
duty to which he was assigned, until he was removed from the 
Active List, in pursuance of law and honorably retired as a 
Commodore, November 25, 1868. 

He was conspicuous for activity and bravery on the western 
rivers in the late civil war, and had command of the naval 
expedition which captured Fort Charles, on the White River, 
Arkansas, April 17, 1862. It was in the midst of this engage- 
ment, and while occupying the leading place in the column of 
attack, and through a disastrous accident to his vessel, the Mound 
City, he was seriously maimed — losing his left arm — and barely 
escaped death, a fate that befell almost all the officers and crew 
of the Mound City. 

He was generous, loyal and brave, and in recognition of his 
highly meritorious services, was promoted July 1, 1870, from a 
Commodore to a Rear- Admiral on the Retired List. 

In respect to his memory, it is hereby ordered that on the day 
after the receipt hereof the flags of the Navy Yards and Stations 
and vessels in commission be displayed at half-mast, from sunrise 
to sunset, and thirteen minute guns be fired at noon from every 
Navy Yard and Station, flag-ships and vessels acting singly. 

R. W. Thompson, 

Secretary of the Navy. 



245 



These are the originals of my famil}^ portraits. 
They hav^e gone where we must all follow. " Re- 
quiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua 
luceat eis." 

THE END. ' 



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